Unemployment across the 16 countries which share the euro stuck at a record 10 per cent in May for the third month running, European Union data showed yesterday.

Almost 16 million people were out of work in the common currency area as the unemployment rate in the crisis-hit eurozone remained at its highest level since the euro's creation in 1999, seasonally-adjusted Eurostat figures showed. The official statistics agency had initially estimated an unemployment rate of 10.1 per cent for April, but it revised the figure down to 10 per cent.

The unemployment rate in the wider, 27-nation European Union stood at 9.6 per cent in May, also unchanged from the previous month, for a total of 23.13 million people without jobs.

Among the eurozone's biggest economies, unemployment fell slightly in Germany to 7.0 per cent in May from 7.1 per cent the previous month. It stood still in France at 9.9 per cent and in Italy at 8.7 per cent.

In Spain, the unemployment rate rose to 19.9 per cent compared to 19.7 per cent in April.

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