Eurostat, the Statistics Office of the European Union, has published the data relating to the unemployment rate for March 2006. In the Euro zone a slight decrease over the figure for the previous month is registered (from 8.2% to 8.1%): the decrease is more substantial if compared with the 8.8% in March 2005. On the other hand, there is no variation in the rate for the EU-25, which confirms the figure of 8.4% of the previous month, though this is an improvement over the 8.9% of the previous year. The league table of the virtuous States is led by the Netherlands (4%), Ireland (4.2%) and Denmark (4.3%). At the lower end of the table we find Poland (16.8%), Slovakia (15.7%), Greece (9.6%) and France (9.1%). Over the last twelve months, only six States have registered an increase in the unemployment rate (Cyprus, Malta, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Portugal and Hungary), while eighteen have been able to boost employment at the national level (especially Estonia, Lithuania and Denmark).
