Forexpros – The euro zone’s unemployment rate rose more-than-expected in January, climbing to the highest level since the inception of the euro, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, Eurostat said that the euro zone’s unemployment rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 10.7% in January, up from 10.6% in December, whose figure was revised up from 10.4%.
Analysts had expected the jobless rate to dip to 10.4% in February.
The jobless rate stood at 10.0% in January 2011.
According to the data, the number of unemployed people in the euro zone was 24.32 million in January, of whom 16.92 million were in the euro area.
Compared with December, the number of persons unemployed increased by 191,000 in the EU27 and by 185,000 in the euro area.
Among euro zone member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, while Spain at 23.3% and Greece at 19.9% recorded the highest rates.
Following the release of the data, the euro remained higher against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD rising 0.11% to trade at 1.3340.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were up. The EURO STOXX 50 rose 0.35%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.15%, London’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.45%, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.4%.
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