Over the last two years, unemployment rates have continued to diverge across European countries reflecting the level of economic activity and the different impact of the economic crisis.

By early 2012, the unemployment rate in Spain reached 23 per cent - the highest in Europe. Although Greece has experienced a sharper increase in unemployment due to the economic and financial constraints in the country, the unemployment rate was smaller than in Spain - about 20 per cent by the end of 2011.

Germany and Poland - two large European economies - have experienced stable unemployment rates: 10 per cent in Poland and a graduate fall from 8 to 6 per cent in Germany. Norway is an example of an economy that has not been influenced much by the crisis. Unemployment there has stayed at 3-4 per cent over the last two years.

Source: UNECE Statistical Database