Unemployment across Europe has hit a record high according to official new figures released today.
The Eurostat data show that a total of 18.8 million are out of work in the seventeen Euro zone countries, 11.8% of the full potential workforce.
Spain has the highest rate at 26.6% followed by Greece at 26%. The lowest recorded rates in the Euro zone are from Austria at 4.5%, Luxembourg on 5.1% and Germany with 5.4%.
For the wider European Union collection of 27 countries, which includes the United Kingdom, the unemployment rate has remained stable at 10.7% of the workforce or a total of 26.1 million people.
In this ranking the UK has the ninth lowest rate of unemployment at 7.8%, a figure which matches the expectations laid out by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility in mid-2010.
Go to comments