By Nick Mann | 30 April 2013

The percentage of the labour force out of work in the eurozone increased to 12.1% last month, the highest level since the single currency bloc was established in 2001, according to official figures published today.

Data from the European Union’s statistical service Eurostat reveals that over 19.2 million people were out of work in the eurozone in March, 62,000 more than the previous month when the unemployment rate was 12%. Compared with a year earlier, 1.7 million more people were out of work last month.

Youth unemployment in the eurozone remained at a record high of 23.5%.

The overall European Union unemployment rate remained at 10.9%, although 69,000 people lost their jobs.

Compared with a year ago, unemployment has risen in 19 of the 27 EU member states and fallen in just eight.

Some of the biggest increases were recorded in eurozone members where particularly stringent austerity policies are being pursued. In Greece, where the most recent figures available are for January, the jobless rate reached 27.2%, up from 21.5% a year earlier, while in Spain, it was 26.7%, up from 24.1% in March 2012. Meanwhile, in Cyprus, the percentage of the population out of work increased from 10.7% to 14.2%. In Portugal, it rose from 15.1% to 17.5%.

Most of those countries also have the highest youth unemployment rates. In Greece, 59.1% of under-25s were out of work in January 2013. In Spain, the figure is 55.9%. Over one in three young people was also unemployed last month in Italy, Portugal and Slovakia.

The lowest overall jobless rates were in Austria (4.7%), Germany (5.4%) and Luxembourg (5.7%), and the lowest young unemployment rates in Germany and Austria (both 7.6%).

Eurozone and EU unemployment continues to trend above the jobless rate in the US, which was 7.6% last month, and Japan, which was 4.3% in February.