Eurozone economy stabilising as unemployment remains at steady 12%

Official figures show that unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro held steady in August, in another sign that the eurozone economy is stabilising following its longest-ever recession.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, says Tuesday that unemployment was unchanged at 12 percent in August from the previous month. In total, the number of unemployed fell by a modest 5,000 to 19.18 million.

The improvement in the eurozone labor market has come in the wake of the region's emergence from recession. In the second quarter, it posted quarterly economic growth following six straight contractions.

The overall figures mask huge divergences: While Germany has an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, Greece and Spain have over a quarter of their potential workforce out of work.

AP