The unemployment rate in March reached new highs, as the European economy is still going through a recession and politically-mandated austerity. According to the latest Eurostat divs, unemployment in the Eurozone marginally increased from 12% in February to 12.1% in March, while for the EU it remained unchanged at 10.9%.
About 26.521 million people from the 27 EU members are out of job, with 19.211 million coming from the 17 Eurozone countries. In February about 69,000 people in the EU (62,000 in the Eurozone) lost their job. Compared to March 2012, unemployment is up by 1.814 million in the EU and 1.723 in the Eurozone. Unemployment for young people, up to the age of 25 was 23.5% in the EU (5.69 million people) and 24% in the Eurozone (3.599 million people).
The highest unemployment rates were in Greece (27.2% – January data), Spain (26.7%) and Portugal (17.5%). The lowest unemployment rates were in Austria (4.7%) and Germany (5.4%).
