Investing.com - Investing.com - The euro zone's unemployment rate held steady just below a record-high in February, underlining concerns over the region's growth prospects, official data showed on Tuesday. In a report, Eurostat said that the euro zone's unemployment rate held steady at a seasonally adjusted 11.9% in February, unchanged from January and compared to expectations for a reading of 12.0%. The data showed that among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.8%), Germany (5.1%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (27.5% in December 2013) and Spain (25.6%). Following the release of the data, the euro held on to modest gains against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD easing up 0.19% to trade at 1.3797. Meanwhile, European stock markets remained higher. The Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.3%, France's CAC 40 added 0.6%, Germany's DAX edged 0.4% higher, while London's FTSE 100 inched up 0.45%.

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