Eurozone unemployment has edged higher but job losses in the 16-country region still show few signs of matching the US pace of increase, thanks largely to emergency employment protection schemes.

The total number of unemployed rose by 184,000 to 15.3m in September, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office. That lifted the jobless rate from 9.6 per cent of the workforce in August to 9.7 per cent last month.