Eurozone unemployment rate stuck at 10 per cent: EU

BRUSSELS: Unemployment across the 16 countries which share the euro stuck at a record 10 per cent in June for the fourth month running, European Union data showed on Friday.

Almost 16 million people were out of work in the common currency area as the unemployment rate in the crisis-hit eurozone remained at its highest level since the euro's creation in 1999, seasonally-adjusted Eurostat figures showed.

The unemployment rate in the wider, 27-nation European Union was also unchanged at 9.6 per cent in June, still leaving more than 23 million people out of work.

Spain retained the bloc's highest unemployment rate of 20 per cent.

By comparison with major international economic rivaks, the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June in the United States and 5.2 percent in Japan in May.