The agency revised upward the January jobless rate for the euro zone from the previously reported 11.9 percent, itself a record. For the overall European Union, Eurostat said the February jobless rate rose to 10.9 percent from 10.8 percent in January, with more than 26 million people without work across the 27-nation bloc.

Both the jobless rates and the number of unemployed are the highest Eurostat has recorded in data that reach back to 1995, before the creation of the euro.

Europe’s rising unemployment is in increasingly stark contrast to the jobs recovery in the United States, where unemployment in February declined to 7.7 percent, the lowest level since late 2008. The consensus among economists surveyed by Reuters is for the U.S. economy to show a gain of 200,000 jobs in March, after a gain of 236,000 in February. The labor data will be released Friday.

With most European economies either contracting or barely growing, any hiring that is being done by Europe’s companies tends to be taking place elsewhere. Volkswagen, aspiring to become the world’s largest automaker within a few years, is planning to hire 50,000 workers by 2018, raising its total work force to 600,000 employees, according to Bernd Osterloh, the chairman of the German carmaker’s workers council.

But the company wants to add production where the demand is.

“Volkswagen is growing, and is therefore continuing to hire in production,” Mr. Osterloh said in an article that appeared Tuesday in the German daily Handelsblatt. More of the new employees will be added in China than in Europe, he told the newspaper.