Investing.com - The euro zone’s unemployment rate held steady at a 20-month low in May, amid easing concerns over the region’s growth prospects, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, Eurostat said that the euro zone’s unemployment rate held steady at a seasonally adjusted 11.6% in May, unchanged from April and compared to expectations for an increase to 11.7%.
The data showed that among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.7%), Germany (5.1%) and Malta (5.7%), and the highest in Greece (26.8% in March 2014) and Spain (25.1%).
Following the release of the data, the euro held on to losses against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD shedding 0.04% to trade at 1.3687.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained higher. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.2%, France’s CAC 40 tacked on 0.6%, Germany's DAX inched up 0.25%, while London’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.45%.