Ireland experienced the largest fall in unemployment in Europe last month. Eurostat says the unemployment rate for the whole of Europe was 12% in December.

It estimates that just over 19 million people were out of work in the Eurozone last month.

Among the states with the lowest unemployment rates were Austria (4.9%), Germany (5.1%) and Luxembourg (6.2%). While the largest decreases in unemployment were seen in Ireland, Latvia and Portugal.

The rate in both Ireland and Latvia fell from 14% to 12.1% when compared with December 2012.

Meanwhile the highest rates were in Greece (27.8% in October 2013) and Spain (25.8%).

Compared with November of last year, the number of unemployed fell by 129,000 in the Euro area. But when the numbers are compared with December of 2012, unemployment increased by 130,000.

And youth unemployment - for those aged under-25 - in the Eurozone fell by 77,000 last month.