The Toll of Austerity: Eurozone Unemployment Hits New Record
January 10, 2012 As the U.S. Labor Department announces today that the unemployment rate has fallen to a low of 8.5%, new statistics released today from the Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, show the soaring rates of unemployment in the eurozone.
Eurostat's data show "the highest [levels of unemployment] in Spain (22.9%), Greece (18.8% in September 2011) and Lithuania (15.3% in the third quarter of 2011)."
The Guardian notes how austerity measures have been a factor in the unemployment rate:
Public spending cuts and collapsing business confidence have sent unemployment in the eurozone to a record 16 million people, up 587,000 on the same month in 2010.
Official figures compiled by Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, show the heavy toll taken on the workforce by austerity measures and the slowdown in the eurozone economy during 2011.
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