Eurozone unemployment rises to 8.9 pc: EU

BRUSSELS: Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro rose in March to 8.9 per cent to hit the highest level in over three years as the recession took hold, according to official EU data on Thursday.

The unemployment rate hit the highest level since November 2005 in March as an estimated 419,000 jobs were shed across the single currency bloc, the European Union's Eurostat data agency said.

The eurozone joblessness rate stood at 8.7 per cent in February 2009 and 7.2 percent in March 2008.

For the 27-nation EU as a whole the unemployment rate was 8.3 per cent in March, up from 8.1 per cent in February and 6.7 per cent in March last year.