Eurozone Crippled by Youth Unemployment as Rate Holds at 23.7%

The Eurozone is still blighted by high rates of youth unemployment as the region's jobless rate for under 25s remained steady at 23.7% in March.

But according to Eurostat, the statistics body of the European Commission, the number of youngsters out of work across the Eurozone dropped by 166,000 over the same period.

Europe's largest economy Germany has the lowest youth unemployment rate across the region at 7.8% – a vast difference against the UK's 19.1% rate for 16 to 24 year olds.

The research body also revealed that the Eurozone's total unemployment rate remained steady at 11.8% in March [Fig 1].

The jobless rate has been stable since December 2013, but down from 12% over the same period last year.

The data means 18.9 million people are unemployed across the region as the Eurozone continues to slowly recover from the financial crisis of 2008.

Spain, with an unemployment rate of 25.3%, was one of the countries with the largest jobless rates.

In comparison, the UK's 6.8% unemployment rate meant it was one of the nations with the lowest jobless rates across the Eurozone.