BRUSSELS (AP) — Official figures show that unemployment across the 19-country eurozone has fallen to its lowest level in a little more than nine years on the back of strong economic growth.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, said Thursday that the unemployment rate in January was 8.6 percent, unchanged from the previous month's rate, which was revised down from the previous estimate of 8.7 percent.

The rate now is the lowest since December 2008, when unemployment was mushrooming in the wake of the global financial crisis and ensuing recession.

Though unemployment across the eurozone has been edging down for a few years now from a peak of over 12 percent, it's still around double the rate in the United States. The hope is it will fall further this year as growth remains elevated.