Unemployment average in the EU

Unemployment average in the EU

As per the information obtained from Eurostat, the average unemployment rate in the 15 member states of the European Union (EU) is recorded as 8% as of end October 2003. This average was 7.8% in October 2002. Furthermore, the average unemployment rate in Euro zone was stable at 8.8% in October 2003. The average a year earlier was 8.5%. Eurostat estimates that, in October 2003, 12.4 million people were unemployed in the Euro zone and 14.3 million people in the EU. The unemployment rates of some EU countries are; 3.9% in Luxembourg, 4.5% in Austria, 4.6% in Ireland, 5.8% in Sweden, 6% in Denmark, 6.9% in Portugal, 8.1% in Belgium,8.9% in Finland, 9.3% in Germany, 9.6% in France and 11.2% in Spain. According to the information provided by the EU's statistics institution Eurostat, the unemployment rate for the same period is recorded as 6% in the US and 5.2% in Japan.