According to a Eurostat report published this week, there are pronounced differences in unemployment between EU countries. The member states with the highest rates in February are Spain (19.0 per cent/+11.0pp) and the Baltic States: Latvia (21.7 per cent/+16.3pp), Lithuania (15.8 per cent/+11.7pp) and Estonia (15.5 per cent/+11.5pp).

They are followed by Slovakia (14.2 per cent/+5.4pp) and Ireland (13.2 per cent/+8.8pp). At the other end of the scale, the Netherlands (4.0 per cent/+1.3pp), Austria (5 per cent/+1.6pp) and Luxembourg (5.5 per cent/+1.6pp) have the lowest unemployment rates.

The lowest rise in unemployment has so far, however, been experienced in Germany (7.5 per cent/+0.5pp). Malta (7.1 per cent/+1.4pp), Belgium (8.0 per cent/+1.5pp) and Romania (7.6 per cent/+1.9pp) have also exhibited fairly resilient labour markets during the crisis.

In all other member states, the rise has so far remained between two and 4.5pp. The differences in the latter group’s unemployment rates observed now are primarily due to differences already apparent before the crisis rather than differences in unemployment growth during the crisis.

Norway (3.3 per cent/+1.0pp), which has weathered the crisis well in all respects, has also experienced very limited growth in unemployment.

For the US overall, the current crisis has led to unemployment rates inching up towards the levels observed in 1982/83, after the

second oil shock.

While all US states have suffered the impact of the crisis on the labour market, there are large differences. In general, states with relatively low levels of unemployment before the crisis showed low increases in unemployment, and vice versa. This has increased the unemployment imbalances across the US.

The three states with the highest unemployment rates in February 2010 were located in different regions: Michigan (14.1 per cent/+7.8pp) in the Midwest, Nevada (13.2 per cent/+9.0pp) in the West and Rhode Island (12.7 per cent/+7.8pp) in the Northeast. Among other states, in California (12.5/+7.7pp), unemployment has never been higher since the beginning of the series in 1976.

The lowest levels of unemployment have been recorded in North Dakota (4.1 per cent/+1.6pp), South Dakota (4.8 per cent/+2.3pp) and Nebraska (4.8 per cent/+2.0pp).