The euro area (EA13) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.9% in August 2007, unchanged compared to July. It was 7.8% in August 2006. The EU27 unemployment rate was 6.7% in August 2007, compared with 6.8% in July3. It was 7.8% in August 2006.
In August 2007, the lowest rates were registered in Denmark and the Netherlands (both 3.3%), and the highest in Slovakia (11.1%) and Poland (9.1%).
These figures are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Twenty-four Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate over a year and three an increase. The largest relative falls were observed in Poland (13.3% to 9.1%) and Lithuania (5.8% to 4.1%). The highest relative increases were registered in Portugal (7.5% to 8.3%) and Ireland (4.4% to 4.7%). The unemployment rate for males fell from 6.7% to 5.8% between August 2006 and August 2007 in the euro area
and from 7.1% to 6.0% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate declined from 9.2% to 8.2% in the euro area and from 8.8% to 7.6% in the EU27.

In August 2007, the unemployment rate for under-25s was 14.9% in the euro area and 15.1% in the EU27. In August 2006 it was 16.5% and 17.3% respectively. The lowest rates for under-25s were observed in Denmark (6.5%), the Netherlands (6.8%) and Lithuania (7.5% in the second quarter 2007), and the highest in Greece (22.9% in the second quarter 2007), France (21.6%), Romania (19.8%) and Poland (19.7%).

Eurostat estimates that 15.8 million men and women in the EU27, of which 10.3 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in August 2007. In August 2006, 18.3 million men and women in the EU27, of which 11.6 million were in the euro area, were unemployed.
In August 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.6% in the USA and 3.8% in Japan.