The unemployment rate across the Eurozone hit a new high in March, as the total number of people without jobs crept towards 20m.

New data from EU statistics agency Eurostat shows a seasonally-adjusted total of 19.2m people out of work across the 17-country Eurozone area. This gives a seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 12.1%, up from 11% in March 2011.

Ireland was the only major winner among Euro nations, with joblessness dropping from 15% to 14.1% year-on-year.

A marginal drop of 0.1 percentage points to 5.4% was seen in Germany, while three smaller, non-Eurozone nations (Denmark, Lithuania and Romania) also saw their levels decrease.