(28 April 2016) – More than 60% of the NUTS 2 regions of the European Union recorded a decrease of at least 0.5% in their regional unemployment rate in 2015 compared with 2014.
However, regional unemployment rates continued to vary widely across the EU regions, with the lowest rates recorded in the German regions of Freiburg and Lower-Bavaria (both 2.5%), Upper-Bavaria and Upper-Palatinate (both 2.7%), followed by Prague in the Czech Republic (2.8%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the highest unemployment rates were registered in Melilla (34.0%) and Andalusia (31.5%) in Spain, Central Macedonia (30.7%) in Greece, the Canary islands and Extremadura (both 29.1%) in Spain.
Among the 274 EU regions for which data are available, 60 had an unemployment rate of 4.7% or less in 2015, half the average of the EU (9.4%). They included twenty-four regions in Germany, twenty-one in the United Kingdom, five in Austria, three in the Czech Republic, two each in Belgium, Hungary and Romania and one in Italy.
In contrast, 29 regions had a rate of at least 18.8%, double that of the EU: eleven regions in Greece, ten in Spain and four each in France (all overseas departments) and Italy.