Spelling the end of the positive trend observed for several months, unemployment in the eurozone countries for December 2005 has registered a slight increase, rising from the 8.3% of the previous month to 8.5%. The overall unemployment rate in the 25-member EU remains stable at 8.5%. Only four countries were able to contain unemployment under the threshold of 5%: Ireland (4.3%), Denmark (4.4%), Holland (4.7%) and the UK (4.9%). At the opposite end of the spectrum are Poland (17.2%), Slovakia (16.1%) and Greece (10.1%). The situation in Germany and France is also disturbing: unemployment rates in these countries are respectively 9.5% and 9.2%. Sixteen member countries registered a positive trend in 2005 (especially good were the results in Lithuania, Estonia, Spain and Latvia). In two countries the rate remained unvaried (Belgium and Malta), while seven countries have seen deterioration in their domestic situation (especially Luxembourg and Hungary, the UK and Portugal). As a whole, unemployment in Europe during 2005 showed a significant decrease: from 8.8% to 8.4% in the eurozone and from 9.0% to 8.5% in the EU-25. For further info:
