Updated

Official figures show that unemployment across the 19-country eurozone held steady at 8-year lows in March.

Statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday that the proportion of people out of work was unchanged at 9.5 percent following a modest 5,000 monthly decline in the number of unemployed to 15.52 million.

The unemployment rate remains at its lowest rate since April 2009.

Though unemployment has been on a downward trend for years, it's still high relative to other economies such as the United States, where it's around half the eurozone's rate.

Big divergences remain. While Germany has an unemployment rate of just 3.9 percent, Greece still has 23.5 percent of its potential workforce jobless.

Hopes are high that unemployment across the region will fall further as the economy gains momentum.