Unemployment across the 16 nations that use the euro has hit its highest level since December 1998, the European Union's statistics office said.
The seasonally adjusted rate for the eurozone was 9.8 per cent in October, with overall numbers on the dole up to 15.567 million people across the economic region - even though the rate was unchanged from September.
Across the 27-nation EU as a whole, there are now at least 22.51 million people unemployed.
Compared to September, that meant an extra 134,000 out of work in the euro area - whereas the EU figures rose by 258,000.
Compared to one year earlier, there were more than 3.1 million more people unemployed in the eurozone and five million more across the full bloc.
Front page
RSS Feed