(22 May 2013) – Regional unemployment rates varied widely across the 270 NUTS 2 regions of the EU27 in 2012, with the lowest rates recorded in the regions of Salzburg and Tyrol (both 2.5%) in Austria, while the highest rates were registered in the regions of Ceuta (38.5%) and Andalusía (34.6%) in Spain.
Among the regions, 53 had an unemployment rate of less than 5.2% in 2012, half the average for the EU27. They included twenty-two regions in Germany, eight out of nine regions in Austria, seven regions in the Netherlands, five in the United Kingdom, four in Belgium, three in Romania, two in the Czech Republic, one in Italy and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. At the other extreme, 25 regions had a rate higher than 20.8%, double that of the EU27: eleven regions in Spain, ten regions in Greece and four French Overseas Departments.
In the EU27 in 2012 the female unemployment rate was slightly higher than the male rate (10.5% compared with 10.4%). It varied between 2.7% in Freiburg in Germany and 49.4% in Ceuta in Spain and 36.8% in Western Macedonia in Greece, while the male rate ranged from 2.3% in Salzburg and Tyrol in Austria to 33.6% in Andalusía in Spain. The average unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 24 in the EU27 was 22.9%. The lowest rates were recorded in the German regions of Upper Bavaria (4.2%) and the highest in Western Macedonia (72.5%) in Greece.
The long-term unemployment share, which is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons who have been unemployed for 12 months or more, stood at 44.6% on average in the EU27 in 2012, and varied significantly across the regions. In 53 regions more than half of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 12 months.