Contrary to the negative forecasts of some analysts, unemployment in Europe remained stable in November 2005, at a rate of 8.3% in the Euro zone and 8.5% in the 25-member EU. In both cases, the decrease is half a percentage point over the same period in 2004. Only three member states contained unemployment below 5%: Ireland with 4.3%, Denmark with 4.5% and despite a slight increase the United Kingdom with 4.8%. Poland (17.4%), Slovakia (16%) and Greece (10.1%) remain at the opposite end of the spectrum. Sixteen countries registered a positive trend over the last year (prominent among them are Lithuania, Latvia and Spain with declines in unemployment exceeding 20%); on the contrary, the countries that have registered the largest increases are Luxembourg, Hungary and Portugal. According to Eurostat, there were 12.1 million unemployed in the Euro zone and 18.4 million in the EU-25 in November 2005.
