The eurozone jobless rate was steady in April from March as the economic recovery failed to generate new jobs, the European Union statistics office said on Wednesday.
The unemployment rate in the 12-member area was at 9.0 percent in April, unchanged from the March rate that was revised upwards from an earlier reported 8.8 percent. Economists had also forecast a steady unemployment rate.
Unemployment in the 25-nation EU was also steady in April at 9.1 percent from March, which was revised upwards from 9.0 percent, Eurostat said.
In the eurozone 12.7 million million people were jobless in April while 19.3 million people in the EU were unemployed according to seasonally-adjusted figures, Eurostat said.
The data compares with a US April jobless rate of 5.6 percent and a Japanese rate of 4.7 percent.
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. On Tuesday Reuters Eurozone Purchasing Managers Index showed the 36th consecutive month of job losses.
With unemployment running at 4.2 percent, Luxembourg had the lowest jobless level in the EU followed by Cyprus with 4.4 percent, while Poland had the highest rate of 18.9 percent.
The top two eurozone economies Germany and France had jobless rates of 9.8 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.
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