Eurozone Unemployment Remains At Record level

Unemployment across the 17 countries that use the euro stuck at 11 percent in April — the highest level since the single currency was introduced back in 1999, piling further pressure on the region's leaders to switch from austerity to focus on stimulating growth.

The eurozone's stagnant economy left 17.4 million people out of a population of some 330 million without a job, with rates continuing to climb in struggling Spain, Portugal and Greece. The EU's Eurostat office said 110,000 unemployed were added in April alone.

In recession-hit Spain, unemployment spiked to 24.3 percent, the worst rate in the EU. It was up 0.2 points since March, and 3.6 percentage points compared to last year. Youth unemployment ballooned to a 51.5 percent, up from 45 percent last year.


Greece is the bloc's second worst performer with unemployment creeping further upwards to 21.7 percent in February, the last month for which figures are available. It compares to a rate of 16.1 percent a year earlier. The economy in Greece has been contracting far more than expected late last year, taking employment with it in a downward spiral.

Athens is facing June 17 elections where jobs are a key issue together with the fundamental question of whether the country wants to stay in the currency zone.

Like Greece, Ireland has been forced to rely on an international bailout but its economy returned to growth last year. It is beginning to show in the statistics since overall unemployment fell to 14.2 percent, when it stood at 14.7 only in December.

Unemployment was lowest in Austria, whose economy has been outperforming the European Unuon average, with 3.9 percent, followed by Luxembourg and the Netherlands with 5.2 percent.     (AP)