The European Union (EU) saw the number of people out of work drop during January 2011 compared with the previous month.

According to the latest figures from Eurostat, the region witnessed a 0.1 percentage point decline during the period in question to 9.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, a similar fall was also recorded in January this year within the eurozone from ten per cent in December 2010 to 9.9 per cent.

The statistics also show there were 2.048 million men and women out of jobs in the 27 EU member states during the first month of 2011, down by 43,000 from December, but 99,000 higher than in January 2010.

With rates of 4.3 per cent in January, the Netherlands and Austria were the member states with the lowest unemployment levels while Spain (20.4 per cent) and Latvia (18.3 per cent) had the highest totals.

Largest year-on-year falls in the number of people out of work were found in Estonia (from 16.1 per cent to 14.3 per cent) and Malta (from 7.2 per cent to 6.1 per cent).

In related news, jobs may be created in the EU hotels sector after Eurostat reported a climb in the number of nights spent by non-residents in such premises across the region of 2.8 per cent between 2009 and 2010.

Posted by Alex Donnell