Unemployment in the euro zone rose to 8.9 percent in March, up from 8.7 percent in the previous month, the European Union (EU)'s statistics bureau Eurostat said on Thursday.

It was also markedly higher than 7.2 percent registered a year ago.

It was the eighth consecutive month that the eurozone unemployment kept on the rise, a sign of the economic woes.

In the 27-nation EU, unemployment jumped to 8.3 percent, compared with 8.1 percent in the previous month and 6.7 percent a year ago.

Among EU member states, the Netherlands recorded the lowest unemployment rate, at 2.8 percent. Jobless rate in Germany, the largest economy in the EU, rose to 7.6 percent from 7.4 percent in February, while France's unemployment rate rose from 8.6 percent to 8.8 percent.

The Eurostat estimated that there were 20.154 million people unemployed in the EU in March, among which 14.158 million were in the euro zone. Compared with February, the number of persons unemployed increased by 626,000 in the EU and by 419,000 in the euro zone.

Unemployment in Europe has been on the rise in recent months after it reached its lowest level around March 2008, showing the EU macroeconomic situation is worsening due to the unfolding financial crisis.

As a comparison, the jobless rate in the United States was 8.5 percent in March, and the Japanese rate was 4.4 percent.