Eurozone unemployment holds steady

Berlin - Unemployment in the eurozone held steady at 11.8% for the fourth consecutive month in March, according to Eurostat data released on Friday.

The total number of unemployed in the currency bloc slipped to 18.91 million from 18.93 million in February, after just 22 000 people found work during March, the European Union statistics office said.

Greece and Spain, which have been at the centre of the eurozone crisis, again reported the highest jobless rates in the 18-member eurozone.

While Spain's unemployment rate stood at 25.3% in March, the jobless rate in Greece came in at 26.7% in January, which was the latest available data for the country, Eurostat said.

The lowest rates in March were in Austria at 4.9% and Germany at 5.1%.

Unemployment for March in the 28-member European Union remained at the February level of 10.5%.