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Eurozone unemployment up

July 1, 2013

There is no sign yet of an end to swelling jobless ranks in the euro area, fresh figures from the European Union's statistics agency have indicated. The situation remains particularly alarming in the south.

https://p.dw.com/p/18z0g
Young jobless Spaniards during a rally in Madrid +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Joblessness across the 17 nations using the euro hit another record in May after a revision of data for the previous months, the EU statistics agency, Eurostat, reported on Monday.

It said eurozone unemployment rose by 0.1 percent month-on-month to reach 12.1 percent in May. It marked a new all-time high for the region after April's figure was revised down to 12 percent.

19.22 million people were out of work across the bloc, 67,000 more than in April, Eurostat said, meaning that the number of unemployed people has been on the rise since mid-2011. Analysts said they believed it would rise even further because of the euro area's enduring debt crisis.

German spearheads efforts to cut EU youth unemployment

Youths hit hardest

Youth unemployment kept receiving particular attention amid fears that a lost generation was in the making. In May, 3.5 million people under the age of 25 were jobless in the eurozone, bringing the rate to 23.8 percent.

Greece and Spain continued to post the worst jobless figures, with Austria and Germany retaining the lowest rates.

In the wider 27-member European Union, the unemployment rate remained at 10.9 percent, although another 16,000 people joined the jobless ranks. The EU currently has 26.4 million people looking for jobs.

hg/jr (dpa, AFP, AP)