Portugal's unemployment rate increased to 12.2% in the last quarter of 2015, up from 11.9% in the previous periods, as the number of unemployed rose by 2.4% while employment fell by 0.3%. Unemployment in Portugal averaged 7.71% from 1983 to 2015, reaching a high of 17.5% in early 2013 and a low of 3.7% in mid-2000. In February 2016, Greece had the highest unemployment rate in the EU at 24%, while Ireland had the lowest at 8.8%.