The gradual decline in unemployment in the Eurozone is continuing. According to the data of Eurostat, the rate registered in December 2006 is equivalent to 7.5%, in contrast to 7.6% in the previous month. The improvement can be shown even more clearly if we consider the figure for December 2005, when unemployment affected 8.4% of citizens in countries of the Euro. As regards the EU-25, the rate is 7.6% for December 2006 (showing no variation over November), compared with 8.5% twelve months ago. The best figures are those of Denmark (3.2%), Holland (3,6%), Estonia (4.3%), Ireland (4.4%) and Austria (4.6%); the most significant declines were registered by Poland and Slovakia, which in spite of the fact that they occupy the two bottom places in the EU league table of unemployment improved their performance respectively from 16.9% to 12.8% and from 15.5% to 12%. The only percentage increases were registered in the UK (5.4%), Luxembourg (4.8%) and Hungary (7.7%). The trend for youth unemployment under the age of 25 is also positive: 15.9% in the Eurozone and 16.3% in the EU-25. The situation remains worrying however in Poland, Slovakia, Greece (states where one youth of working age out of four is without a job) and France, which registered a rate of 21.3%. There are currently 16.6 million unemployed in the European Union.
