Regional unemployment rates varied widely across the 270 NUTS 2 regions of the EU27 in 2012, with the lowest rates recorded in the regions of Salzburg and Tirol (both 2.5%) in Austria and Tübingen, Oberbayern and Trier (all 2.7%) in Germany, while the highest rates were registered in the regions of Ceuta (38.5%), Andalucía (34.6%), Extremadura and Canarias (both 33.0%) in Spain and Dytiki Makedonia (29.9%) in Greece.
Among the regions, 53 had an unemployment rate of less than 5.2% in 2012, half the average for the EU27. They included twenty-two regions in Germany, eight out of nine regions in Austria, seven regions in the Netherlands, five in the United Kingdom, four in Belgium, three in Romania, two in the Czech Republic, one in Italy and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. At the other extreme, 25 regions had a rate higher than 20.8%, double that of the EU27: eleven regions in Spain, ten regions in Greece and four French Overseas Departments.
Female unemployment rates varied from 2.7% in Freiburg to 49.4% in Ceuta and 36.8% in Dytiki Makedonia
In the EU27 in 2012 the female unemployment rate was slightly higher than the male rate (10.5% compared with 10.4%). In 2012, the female unemployment rate varied between 2.7% in Freiburg in Germany and 49.4% in Ceuta in Spain and 36.8% in Dytiki Makedonia in Greece, while the male rate ranged from 2.3% in Salzburg and Tirol in Austria to 33.6% in Andalucía in Spain.
Unemployment rates for young people varied from 4.2% in Oberbayern to 72.5% in Dytiki Makedonia
In 2012, the average unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 24 in the EU27 was 22.9%. Regional differences in the unemployment rate for young people are however very marked. In the EU27 in 2012, the lowest rates for young people were recorded in the German regions of Oberbayern (4.2%), Tübingen (4.5%) and Freiburg (4.8%), and the highest in Dytiki Makedonia (72.5%) in Greece, Ceuta (70.6%) and Canarias (62.6%) in Spain. In almost three quarters of the EU27 regions, the unemployment rate for young people was at least twice that for total unemployment.
In almost one fifth of the regions, more than half of the unemployed had been out of work for at least a year
The long-term unemployment share, which is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons who have been unemployed for 12 months or more, stood at 44.6% on average in the EU27 in 2012, and varied significantly across the regions. In the EU27 in 2012, the lowest shares of long-term unemployed were recorded in Mellersta Norrland (15.4%), Stockholm (16.3%) and Västsverige (17.5%) in Sweden and Bucure?ti-Ilfov (17.7%) in Romania, and the highest in the French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe (80.3%), Guyane (74.7%) and Martinique (72.9%) and Východné Slovensko (71.1%) in Slovakia. In 53 regions more than half of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 12 months.
