For the first time ever unemployment in the European Union has reached 10 per cent of the active population, report says.

Unemployment in the 27-member European Union as a whole is 9.5 per cent.

Spain is experiencing the highest unemployment of 19.4 percent, followed by France with 10 percent, Italy with 8.3 percent, and Germany with 7.6 per cent.

According to the report released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10 per cent in November 2009, compared with 9.9 per cent in October.

It was 8 per cent in November 2008. The EU unemployment rate was 9.5 per cent in November 2009 compared with 9.4 per cent in October4. It was 7.5 per cent in November 2008. For the euro area this is the highest rate since August 1998 and for the EU since the start of the series (January 2000).

Eurostat estimates that 22.899 million men and women in the EU, of whom 15.712 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in November 2009. Compared with October, the number of persons unemployed increased by 185,000 in the EU and by 102,000 in the euro area. Compared with November 2008, unemployment went up by 4.978 million in the EU and by 3.041 million in the euro area.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (3.9 per cent) and Austria (5.5 per cent), and the highest rates in Latvia (22.3 per cent) and Spain (19.4 per cent).