Eurozone employment down by 0.3% in 4th quarter of 2008

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Chinese media) -- The number of persons

employed in the euro zone fell by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of

2008compared with the previous quarter, the European Union (EU)'s statistics

bureau Eurostat said on Monday.

It means 453 thousand people lost their jobs,

highlighting the current economic woes.

In the same period, the number of persons employed in

the 27-nation EU also decreased by 0.3 percent, with a loss of 672,000jobs.

In the third quarter of 2008, employment declined by

0.1 percent in the euro zone and by 0.2 percent in the EU.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year,

employment remained stable in both the euro zone and the EU in the fourth

quarter of 2008, after an increase of 0.6 percent in both areas in the third

quarter of 2008.

Over the whole year of 2008, employment grew by 0.8

percent in the euro zone and also by 0.8 percent in the EU, compared with an

increase of 1.8 percent in both zones in 2007.

Eurostat estimated that, in the fourth quarter of

2008, 225.3 million men and women were employed in the EU, of which 145.4

million were in the euro zone.