The unemployment rate in the euro zone held steady at 9.0 per cent in June for the second month running as the region's fledgling economic recovery failed to create new jobs, data from Eurostat showed today.
The European Union statistics office estimated that about 12.7 million people were jobless in the 12-nation euro area while 19.4 million remained unemployed in the 25-state EU.
The figures were in line with analysts' expectations. In June 2003, the euro zone jobless rate was 8.9 per cent.
The lowest jobless rates were registered in Luxembourg and Austria, both at 4.2 per cent. Ireland had 4.5 percent, Britain 4.7 percent and the Netherlands 4.8 percent.
Analysts said that the euro zone's failure to generate new jobs kept consumer demand in check, preventing a faster acceleration of economic growth.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast last month that euro zone growth will speed up to 1.6 per cent this year from 0.5 per cent in 2003.
Next year, the area's gross domestic product is forecast to grow 2.4 per cent.
The unemployment rate in the euro zone and the slightly higher figure for the whole of the EU, 9.1 per cent, remain significantly higher than in the United States and Japan, which have jobless rate of 5.6 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.
Compared with May, 11 EU members recorded an increase in their unemployment, 12 a decrease and two remained the same.
Unemployment rates were generally higher in the new member states, with Poland recording 18.9 percent, Slovakia 16.2 percent and Lithuania 11.4 per cent.
Out of the EU's previous 15 members, Spain's unemployment rate of 11.1 per cent was the highest.