The unemployment rate in the 16-member eurozone hit a 10-year high in May of 9.5 percent, Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union (EU), said on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted figure was up from the 9.3 percent rate registered in April and much higher than the 7.4 percent mark from a year ago.

It was the highest level since May 1999 and the 10th consecutive month that unemployment in the eurozone has risen as companies are forced to cut jobs amid shrinking demand.

In the 27-nation EU, unemployment jumped to 8.9 percent in May, compared with 8.7 percent in the previous month and 6.8 percent one year ago.

Among EU member states, the Netherlands recorded the lowest unemployment rate, which was 3.2 percent. The jobless rate in Germany, the largest economy in the EU, stood at 7.7 percent, unchanged from the previous month, while France's unemployment rose from 9.1 percent to 9.3 percent. Spain registered the highest rate of 18.7 percent.

Eurostat estimated that 21.462 million people in the EU, including 15.013 million in the eurozone, were unemployed in May.

Compared with April, the number of people unemployed increased by 385,000 in the EU and by 273,000 in the eurozone, while compared with May 2008, unemployment went up by 5.111 million in the EU and by 3.4 million in the eurozone.

The European Commission had estimated that there would be 8.5 million more people in the EU left without jobs in 2009 and 2010 due to the economic crisis, with the unemployment rate set to climb to 10.9 percent, and the eurozone would see a record rate of 11.5 percent in the two years.

It warned earlier this week that lower employment would weigh heavily on the growth potential of the European economy in the years ahead.

As a comparison, the jobless rate in the United States was 9.4 percent in May, and the Japanese rate was 5.2 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2009)