Unemployment in the eurozone reached a record high
again in March as spending cuts continued to hit the working
population. Eurostat says that the jobless rate rose again to 10.9%, the highest since
the euro was formed in 1999.
17.4 million are now looking for work and more
than 3 million of those are under 25.
Italy's unemployment rate reached a 12-year high,
up to 9.8% and, in a surprise move, the jobless rate in Germany rose
to 6.8% in March, official figures showed, having been expected to
stay at the previous month's 6.7% after six months of declines. The
number of Germans out of work is now at 2.87 million.
For the whole of the European Union, including
countries such as the UK and Denmark, the jobless rate is 10.2%. Last
week, Spain said that the number of jobseekers rose for the eighth
month in a row in March to hit 5.6 million, a record rate of 24.4%.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the
European Union and it is expected to rise further this year.
A debate is raging in Europe about whether
politicians have prioritised austerity at the expense of economic
growth, making recovery even harder for themselves.
Eurostat said that the EU member countries that
had the biggest falls in unemployment in the past year were
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and those with the biggest increases
were Spain, Greece and Cyprus.
Separately, a survey of eurozone manufacturing
indicated that the sector slipped further into decline last month as
new orders fell for the 11th straight month.
Xabier
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