EC Unemployment Falls Below 17 mln in March

Unemployment in the European Community fell in March to 16.8 mln from 17 mln in February thanks to an improvement in the weather, the EC’s statistics agency Eurostat said.

It said the number of jobless fell in all 12 Community member states as weather conditions improved, though France, Italy and Spain saw declines of less than one pct.

There was also a particularly large drop in the number of jobless under-25s in all states except Italy, where 19,300 more young people were unemployed in March than in the month before.