The Netherlands has second lowest unemployment rate in the EU

According to the latest statistics from Eurostat, as of May 2012 the Netherlands has second lowest unemployment rate in the EU at 5,1 percent, behind Austria at 4,1 percent and just ahead of Germany at 5,6 percent.

Spain has the highest unemployment rate at 24,6 percent, followed by Greece at 21,9 percent as of March 2012, with both countries registering increases in unemployment of about 5 percentage points over the past year.

Meanwhile the average seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for the 27 EU Member States (EU-27) was 10,3 percent in May, compared with 10,2 percent in April; it was 9,5 percent in May 2011.

Source: Eurostat

The Netherlands has the third lowest youth unemployment rate in the EU-27 at 9,2 percent, behind Germany at 7,9 percent and Austria at 8,3 percent, while the highest were observed in Greece (52,1 percent in March 2012) and Spain (52,1 percent). Meanwhile in the EU-27 as a whole youth unemployment was 22,7 percent in May 2012, up from 21,0 percent in May 2011.

Note that according to Statistics Netherlands, the official employment rate in the Netherlands is 6,2 percent.