The visualisation below represents a summary of unemployment rates across the EU27 by month since January 2007 until November 2012. Each country within the EU27 may be selected, compared and contrasted to assess how the economic crisis impacted each state in terms of unemployment. The rate presented here is the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate which represents the percentage of the labour force classified as unemployed. The report, raw data along with metadata is available from Eurostat.
By visualising this data across a time line we can identify the numerous unemployment spikes that occurred due to the various economic events across the EU27. Stand out trends for example are the rise in Irish unemployment between 2007 (4%) to 2010 (14.8%) and its subsequent plateau or the dramatic rise in unemployment in Greece (26.6%) and Spain (26.8%) laterally.
In terms of raw numbers Eurostat reports that the November 2012 unemployment rate of 10.9% equates to 26.06 million people unemployed across the EU27.
By using the select filter located on the left side of the visualisation, countries may be selected for comparison and then for a more detailed analysis at the base of the viz a single country may be selected. In each case by hovering over any part of the viz a detailed value will be shown in a pop up window. The data and images of this visualisation may be extracted using the tools located at the bottom of the page.
See the Viz on the AIRO site here: http://www.airo.ie/news/eu27-unemployment-rates-jan-2007-nov-2012
Eoghan McCarthy
Ireland after NAMA 
February 2, 2013 at 6:50 pm
Really puts the spike in unemployment in perspective. Greece really has been hit so bad and so quickly. Its hard to believe that other countries have gotten off so (relatively) lightly