based ILO report was made public at U.N. headquarters in New York and distributed at the 7th ILO European Regional meeting in Budapest, which opened Monday for the next four days. In the 25-member European Union, there was only a slight decline in unemployment, from 7.4 per cent to 7.2 per cent for the same period. In South Asia and the Pacific, unemployment declined from 6.5 per cent to 6.4 per cent. The unemployment rate remained unchanged in East Asia at 3.3 per cent. Unemployment rates remained unchanged in the Middle East and North Africa at 11.7 per cent while it edged up slightly in the sub-Saharan countries from 10 per cent to 10.1 per cent despite a 4.4 per cent GDP growth rated registered in 2004.
