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Eurozone jobless stays at record high of 11.2 pct

31 July 2012 12:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The number of people unemployed across the 17 countries that use the euro hit a record high in June, official figures showed Tuesday, in a stark reminder that Europeâ€™s debt crisis has ramifications beyond the financial markets, Washington Post reported.

Eurostat, the EUâ€™s statistics office, said 17.801 million people were out of work in the eurozone in June. That was 123,000 more than May, and is the highest level since the euro was formed in 1999. The increase was the 14th in a row and means that around 2.25 million people have lost their jobs since April 2011.

Despite the increase, unemployment on a seasonally-adjusted basis in June was unchanged at a record 11.2 percent, nearly three percentage points higher than the U.S.â€™s equivalent 8.2 percent. Europeâ€™s unemployment rate for May had originally been estimated at 11.1 percent.

Spain, which is at the forefront of Europeâ€™s debt crisis concerns, had the highest unemployment rate across the eurozone of 24.8 percent. Greeceâ€™s rate was not far behind at 22.5 percent, though the latest figures available are for April.

Many countries that use the euro, including France and Italy, also have double-digit unemployment rates.

Germany, Europeâ€™s biggest economy, continues to fare far better, and its unemployment rate, according to Eurostat, dropped to 5.4 percent in June from the previous monthâ€™s 5.5 percent.