Euro zone unemployment hits a new record low: 17.4 million out of work

Saturday, June 2nd 2012 - 02:49 UTC

Full article 5 comments

In Austria the rate fell to 3.9% but in Spain it remains at almost 25%

Euro zone unemployment has hit a record high, and job losses are likely to keep climbing as the bloc's devastating debt crisis eats away at businesses' ability to hire workers while indebted governments continue to cut staff.

Around 17.4 million people were out of work in the 17-nation Euro zone in April, or 11% of the working population, the highest level since records began in 1995, the EU statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.

Although April's joblessness level was the same as March, as Eurostat revised upwards its earlier reading of 10.9% for the month, another 110,000 people were out of work in April and the jobless rate has risen every month over the past year.

While unemployment fell in Austria to just 3.9% in April, it rose to 24.3% in Spain, the highest in the Euro zone. New data for stricken Greece was not immediately available, having reached 21.7% in February.

The number of people out of work also crept up in France and Italy to 10.2% in April, the Euro zone's second- and third-largest economies respectively.

Joblessness in Germany fell to 5.4% of the working population from 5.5% in March, although economists say given the weakening business sentiment, even Europe's largest economy cannot expect unemployment to fall much further.

Categories: Economy, Politics, International.

Tags: Eurozone, Spain, Unemployment.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules

Teaboy2
Title - “Euro zone unemployment hits a new record LOW: 17.4 million out of work”

Start of First Sentence in Article - “Euro zone unemployment has hit a record HIGH”

Well which one is it Mercopress lol
Jun 02nd, 2012 - 07:46 am 0
Malvinero1
I think thay meant :“Employment hit a record low”
17.4 million unemployed...3 million from uk!
Jun 02nd, 2012 - 01:25 pm 0
Raymo
@2 Malvinero1 You must be really thick! the article was about unemployment in the Euro zone, the UK is not in the Euro Zone.

Typical Argie always getting the FACTS wrong!!!
Jun 03rd, 2012 - 12:29 am 0

Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!