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Eurostat revealed that over 20 million people are now out of work in the 27 member states, while 14 million people are unemployed in the 16 countries using the euro.
The figures translate to an 8.3 per cent rate in the former instance - a rise of 1.6 percentage points compared to March 2008.
And for countries using the single currency, the unemployment rate is now 8.9 per cent.
Just three of the 27 states have experienced a fall in unemployment over the course of the last year - Romania, Bulgaria and Greece - while the Netherlands has remained steady at 2.8 per cent.
Spain was found to have the highest rate of unemployment at 17.4 per cent, while Latvia's is 16.1 per cent.
Last month, the Office for National Statistics revealed that UK unemployment reached its highest level since 1997 in the three months up to February, with 2.1 million people out of work.
