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The euro area — a grouping of 16 nation that share the common currency euro — has been one of the worst hit by the financial meltdown.
According to the data from Eurostat — the official statistical agency for the European communities — euro area unemployment rate rose to 9.7 per cent in September from 9.6 per cent in August.
In the 27-nation European Union, the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 per cent in September. The same stood at 9.1 per cent in the previous month.
“For the euro area, this is the highest rate since January 1999 and for the EU-27 since the start of the series in January 2000,” Eurostat said in a statement today.
A whopping 15.32 million men and women were unemployed in the euro area in September, a rise of 184,000, compared to August.
Between September 2008 and September 2009, the jobless rate for males rose from 7.1 per cent to 9.6 per cent in the euro area and from 6.8 per cent to 9.3 per cent in the EU27.
“The female unemployment rate increased from 8.4 per cent to 9.8 per cent in the euro area and from 7.5 per cent to 9.0 per cent in the EU27,” it added.
On the other hand, advanced economies like Germany and France have exited recession, after posting marginal growth in the second quarter of 2009.