BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The unemployment rate in the 12 nations sharing the euro was stable in September at 7.8 percent of the workforce, official data showed.

The rate, which the EU's Eurostat data agency adjusted to take seasonal variations into account, was unchanged from August but sharply lower than the 8.5 percent recorded in September 2005.

Since peaking at 8.9 percent during an extended period ending in September 2004, unemployment in the eurozone has steadily declined as the economy gathers pace, according to the figures from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.

In the 25-nation EU as a whole, unemployment was unchanged from August at 8.0 percent. That figure was also well down on the 8.7 percent jobless rate recorded in September 2005.

But the EU unemployment rates in September remained substantially higher than in the U.S. (4.6 percent) or Japan (4.2 percent).

The unemployment rate among under-25 throughout the EU stood at 17.5 percent overall in September. That figure was as high as 28.7 percent in Poland compared to just 6.7 percent in the Netherlands.