Ireland's unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent is the lowest in the euro zone, according to official EU statistics.
Eurostat's monthly jobless figures show a fall in the number of German jobless drove the euro zone's unemployment rate down to 8.6 per cent in July. Eurostat estimates that 12.5 million people in the euro zone are out of work.
In France unemployment was flat at 9.7 per cent. July data for Italy was not available.
Persistently high unemployment has long been a drag on the euro zone's weak growth rates, as it undermines consumer confidence and disposable incomes.
Despite small declines in the number of jobless over the past five months, Germany's high unemployment rate is likely to cost Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder his job in the September 18th elections as the effects of labour market reforms will not come soon enough.
France has also made reducing the number of jobless its top priority ahead of the 2007 presidential polls.
The percentage of people without work in the whole of the EU of 25 states also eased to 8.6 per cent or 18.7 million workers, in July from 8.7 per cent in June. This compares with a 5 per cent unemployment rate in the United States and 4.4 per cent in Japan.