European unemployment at 12-year high as growth revised down

Fri, 07 Jan 2011

Berlin - European unemployment remained stuck at a 12-year high in November with third-quarter economic growth revised down, data released Friday showed.

Despite a modest decline in jobless queues across the region, the European Union (EU) statistics office Eurostat said seasonally adjusted unemployment in what was the 16-member eurozone came in 10.1 per cent in November 2010.

This was unchanged from the October rate and represented the highest level in 12 years. Eurozone unemployment stood at 9.9 per cent in November 2009.

Instead of a previous third-quarter growth estimate of 0.4 per cent, Eurostat said the eurozone economy grew by 0.3 per cent after household spending was revised down.

In the 27-member EU the unemployment rate was 9.6 per cent in November, which was also unchanged compared with October. EU unemployment stood at 9.4 per cent in November 2009.

A total of 23.248 million people are now unemployed in the EU. At 20.6 per cent, Spain once again had the highest joblessness in Europe.

Compared with October, jobless queues contracted by 35 000 in the EU and by 39 000 in the eurozone. In November, the unemployment rate was 9.8 per cent in the US and 5.1 per cent in Japan.

The eurozone's membership was expanded to 17 this month after the small Baltic state of Estonia joined the currency bloc on New Year's Day.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/361143,high-growth-revised-down.html.