Official Eurostat numbers published today show Eurozone unemployment rate in September at 12,2 per cent. This constitutes a 0,6 per cent rise from last September and it translates into 996,000 more unemployed persons in the Eurozone. As a result, the total number of unemployed people in the Eurozone is currently 19,44 million.

As far as individual member states are concerned, Greece is still the champion of unemployment with 27.6 per cent (July data), followed by Spain with 26.6 per cent. On the contrary, Austria has the lowest unemployment rate with 4.9 per cent with Germany a close second at 5.2 per cent.

Concerning the EU28, unemployment has also risen fom last year by 0.4 per cent (11 vs 10.6 percent). Compared to last year, sixteen members have had unemployment rise, eleven saw it drop while one (Czech Republic) has been stable.