The jobless rate in the euro zone remained steady in April as the economic recovery failed to generate jobs for the 12.7 million unemployed, the European Union statistics office said this morning.
The unemployment rate in the 12-nation area was at 9.0 per cent in April, unchanged from the March rate that was revised upwards from an earlier reported 8.8 per cent.
March was revised upwards due to a regular update of the 2003 labour force survey for Germany, a spokesman for Eurostat said. The German jobless rate in March was raised to 9.7 per cent from 9.3 per cent originally reported.
Economists had forecast a steady jobless rate in April.
Separately, Eurostat also said that factory gate prices in the euro zone rose by 0.4 percent in April from March, propelled by higher costs for energy and intermediate goods.
Unemployment was also steady in April at 9.1 per cent from March, which was revised upwards from 9.0 percent, Eurostat said.
In the EU 19.3 million were unemployed in April.
The data compares with a US April jobless rate of 5.6 per cent and a Japanese rate of 4.7 per cent.
The data confirms expectations by economists and the European Commission that the labour market will not show any significant strength in the first few months of the year.