Unemployment went slightly down in Romania, to 7.2 percent in January this year, from 7.5 in December last year, and below the average for the European Union, of 10.1 percent, according to data from Eurostat. Romania's unemployment went up in the first part of 2011 only to decrease towards the end of the year, staying quite stable under 8 percent. Meanwhile, the European Union faced an increase in the number of unemployed. In January last year, unemployment in the EU 27 area was of 9.5 percent. The eurozone fares even worse, with unemployment now at 10.7 percent after climbing steadily all last year.

Spain tops the chart with unemployment at a staggering 23.3 percent, up from 20.6 percent in January last year. Next comes Portugal, where 14.8 percent are unemployed, more than 2 percent up from the 12.3 percent at the beginning of last year and now on a par with Ireland, where unemployment rose to 14.8 percent from 14.4 percent last year. Slovakia follows with an unemployment of 13.3 percent, slightly below 13.6 percent in January 2011.

Neighbor Bulgaria has an unemployment rate of 11.5 percent, while Poland, of 10.1 percent. Luxembourg displays the lowest figure – 5.1 percent, closely followed by Germany, with 5.8 percent.

Eurostat estimates that 24.3 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 16.9 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in January 2012

The full Eurostat report here.

editor@romania-insider.com