About 25.9 million people remained without work across the 28-nation European Union, Eurostat estimated, out of a potential labor force of about 244 million.

The jobless rate in the 18-nation currency bloc stood at 11.9 percent in February, unchanged from January’s revised figure and flat since October, according to a report by Eurostat, the statistics agency of the European Union.

PARIS — The labor market in the eurozone remains in the doldrums, official data showed Tuesday, as the unemployment rate ticked higher in France and rose to a record in Italy.

There was one bright spot in the data released Tuesday: The number of unemployed people in the European Union fell by 65,000 from January. The monthly data do not provide a detailed breakdown explaining the decrease.


While that figure was an encouraging sign, it did not affect the jobless rate for the eurozone. It did, however, nudge down the unemployment rate for the broader European Union to 10.6 percent in February from the revised 10.7 percent in January.

In Italy, the jobless rate reached a record 13 percent in February from 12.9 percent a month earlier. The rate is the highest documented by Istat, the Italian national statistical agency, in records that date to the beginning of 1977.

In France, the jobless rate ticked up to 10.4 percent from 10.3 percent in January. The labor market in Greece remained the worst in Europe, with joblessness at a depression-level 27.5 percent. Spain, at 25.6 percent, was not far behind, but the market there is showing a glimmer of hope, edging down from 25.8 percent in January.

Austria registered the lowest unemployment rate in the union, at 4.8 percent, followed by Germany, at 5.1 percent.

The European Central Bank meets Thursday to plot monetary policy.