Unemployment in the euro zone remained unchanged in January at a near record high of 12 per cent.

The euro zone unemployment rate has remained steady at 12 per cent since October and was unchanged from January 2013.

According to new figures published by Eurostat, the unemployment rate for the European Union as a whole was 10.8 per cent last month, down from 11 per cent for the same month a year earlier.

Over 19 million people were unemployed in January, up from 17,000 in December. Across the EU28 there wee 26.2 million men and women not working, also up 17,000 from the preceding month. On an annual basis, unemployment decreased by 67,000 in the euro zone and by 449,000 for the euro zone as a whole.

Ireland recorded one of the biggest decreases in unemployment across the euro zone from November 2012 to November 2013, the figures show. Ireland’s unemployment rate declined from 13 .8 per cent to 11.9 per cent over the period, bettered only by Portugal (from 17.6 per cent to 15.3 per cent) and Hungary, which recorded a fall from 11.1 per cent to 8.8 per cent between December 2012 and December 2013.

Among EU member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9 per cent), Germany (5 per cent) and Luxembourg (6.1 per cent), and the highest in Greece (28 per cent) and Spain (25.8 per cent).

On an annual basis, the unemployment rate increased in thirteen Member States, fell in a further thirteen and remained stable in Austria and Slovenia.

In January, there were an estimated 5.5 million individuals aged under 25 who were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.539 million were in the euro zone. This is equivalent to a youth unemployment rate of 23.4 per cent for the EU28 and 24 per cent for the euro zone.

The highest rates of youth unemployment were recorded in Greece, Spain and Croatia and the lowest in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.