The unemployment rate in Europe rose to 8.9 per cent in March, a 0.2 per cent rise compared to the previous month, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the European Union’s Statistics bureau Eurostat.

Unemployment in Europe has been steadily increasing as the global economic downturn forces businesses across the globe to cut costs and shed jobs. EU unemployment rate was at 8.7 per cent in February 2009 and 7.2 in March 2008.

A total of 419,000 people lost their jobs throughout the EU zone in the month of March, raising the total number of people out of work to 20 million according to the latest figures released by Eurostat. This brings the total number of jobs shed over the previous 12 months to 4 million.

In the EU zone, Spain has the highest unemployment rate at 17.4%. Latvia is at 16.1% and the Netherlands appears to be least affected by unemployment with a 2.8% unemployment rate.

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