According to the data released by the European Statistical Office Eurostat, the average unemployment rate registered in the Euro area reached 9.9% rate in June 2011, exactly the same percentage reached in May 2011. With regard to the unemployment rate in the whole EU, the rate was unchanged too from May, 9.4%. It was 9.7% in June 2010.

Eurostat estimates that compared with May 2011, the number of persons unemployed fell by 38,000 in the EU but increased by 18,000 in the euro area. 22,473 million men and women in the EU, of whom 15,640 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in June 2011. Compared with June last year, unemployment decreased by 706,000 in the EU and by 346,000 in the euro area.

The lowest unemployment rates among the Member States were recorded in Austria (4.0%), the Netherlands (4.1%) and Luxembourg (4.5%), and the highest in Spain (21.0%), Lithuania (16.3% in the first quarter of 2011) and Latvia (16.2% in the first quarter of 2011). Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in nineteen Member States, increased in seven and remained stable in Luxembourg. The largest falls were observed in Estonia, Latvia and Hungary and the highest increases were registered in Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Slovenia.

With regard to the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 20.3% in the euro area and 20.5% in the EU. In June 2010 it was 20.9% and 21.0% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (7.1%), Austria (8.2%) and Germany (9.1%) and the highest in Spain (45.7%) once again, Greece (38.5% in the first quarter of 2011), Slovakia (33.3%) and Lithuania (32.6% in the first quarter of 2011).