Improved from a Novermber 2006 unemployment rate of 7.9%, November's 7.2% was the same as October's rate. This rate, which the European Union's Eurostat data agency adjusted to take seasonal variations into account, is the lowest on its books going back to 1993.
Long a major headache for eurozone politicians, unemployment in the eurozone has gradually eased since peaking at 9.1% March 2005, as the economy gathered pace.
Cyprus and Malta adopted the euro as their official currency last week, swelling the eurozone's ranks to 15 members.
In the 27-nation EU as a whole, unemployment stood at 6.9% in November, the same rate as the previous month but also well down on the 7.7% figure registered throughout the bloc in November 2006. Eurostat estimated that 16.4 million workers were without a job throughout the EU, including 11.0 million in the eurozone.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
