BRUSSELS (AFX) - Unemployment in the euro zone fell to 8.3 pct in April from 8.4 pct in March, and from 9.0 pct a year earlier, the EU statistics office Eurostat said.
In the EU 15, the unemployment rate in April stood at 7.6 pct, against a revised 7.7 pct in March, and down from 8.4 pct in April 2000, it said.
Eurostat's original estimate for March was 7.8 pct, it said. The lowest unemployment rates for April were posted in Luxembourg at 2.4 pct, Austria at 3.7 pct and Ireland at 3.8 pct, it said. No April data were available for the Netherlands and Denmark, but figures for March show a low rate of 2.4 pct in the Netherlands and 4.7 pct in Denmark, it said.
Spain remained the country with the highest rate in April, with unemployment at 13.1 pct, it said.
The most important relative falls over the past 12 months were seen in the Netherlands, down to 2.4 pct in March from 3.2 pct, Sweden, down to 4.9 pct in April from 6.2 pct, Ireland, down to 3.8 pct in April from 4.4 pct, and France, down to 8.5 pct in April from 9.8 pct, it said.
"Eurostat estimates that in April 2001, 11.4 mln men and women were unemployed in the euro zone and 13.2 mln in the EU 15," it said.