Luxembourg - Unemployment in the 19-member eurozone edged down to 8.5 per cent in April, the lowest rate since December 2008, according to figures released Thursday.

Nearly 14 million people without a job

The seasonally adjusted rate is down 0.1 percentage point from March, when joblessness stood at a revised 8.6 per cent.

In the eurozone, 13.9 million people were without a job in April, according to the European Union's statistics office Eurostat.

In the European Union as a whole, the unemployment rate stood at 7.1 per cent, unchanged from March.

Youth unemployment fell to 17.2 per cent in April, continuing a downward trend from the previous months.

The EU countries with the lowest joblessness rate in April were the Czech Republic, Malta and Germany, whose figures were all below 3.5 per cent.

Unemployment was the highest in Greece - at 20.8 per cent recorded in February, the latest data available - and Spain, at 15.9 per cent.