Greece still tops eurozone unemployment charts, especially among young people

Greece remained at the top of the eurozone's latest unemployment charts, published by the EU's statistical agency Eurostat on Tuesday.

The Greek jobless rate for February (latest available data) stood at 26.5 percent, making it the highest in the 18-nation euro area, above Spain (25.1 percent in April). The lowest rates for April were recorded in Austria (4.9 percent), Germany (5.2 percent) and Luxembourg (6.1 percent), Eurostat reported.

In the euro area as a whole, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.7 percent in April, down from 11.8 percent in March and from 12 percent in April 2013. The EU28 unemployment rate was 10.4 percent in the same month this year, down from 10.5 percent in March and from 10.9 percent in April 2013.

Youth unemployment also remained high in the 28-nation European Union, with 5.259 million young persons (under 25) being jobless, of whom 3.381 million were in the euro area. Compared with April 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 415,000 in the EU28 and by 202,000 in the euro area. In April this year, the youth unemployment rate was 22.5 percent in the EU28 and 23.5 percent in the euro area, compared with 23.6 percent and 23.9 percent respectively in the same month the previous year.

In April this year, the lowest rates of joblessness among young people were observed in Germany (7.9 percent), Austria (9.5 percent) and the Netherlands (11 percent). Greece again topped the charts with youth unemployment in February reaching (56.9 percent), compared to Spain's first quarter figure of 53.5 percent and Croatia's 49 percent.

In April 2013, Greece's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 26.7 percent and its youth jobless rate at 58.8 percent, showing a slight improvement this year.