Unemployment in the eurozone has reached another record high. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for April was 12.2%, up from 12.1% in March. This translates to 19.38 million people out of work in the 17 countries that use the Euro. In April alone, 95,000 people were added to these stark statistics.
The general pattern continues. The largest increases in unemployment over the last year were in countries at the centre of the crisis - Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. OF particular concern, the divergence between countries continues to widen, which doesn’t bode well for the eurozone as a whole. Indeed, both Greece and Spain have jobless rates above 25%, while Austria enjoys the lowest unemployment rate at 4.9%.
According to the most recent statistics released by the European Commission's statistics office, Eurostat, Germany had an unemployment rate of 5.4% and Luxembourg boasted a rate of 5.6%. Meanwhile, the countries with the highest jobless rates are Greece, with 27.0% (February 2013), Spain at 26.8%, and Portugal wrapping up the bottom three with 17.8%.
"Meanwhile, the economic stress in France, Europe's second largest economy, is gaining steam, with the number of jobless people increasing to a new record high in April," commented Steve Picarillo, lead economic analyst at Creative Advisory Group, Inc. "The weak jobs data across the eurozone is evidence that the eurozone financial crisis continues to linger."
There is however a bit of good news in the statistics. In Ireland, unemployment fell by almost one and half percentage points in the past year. Mr. Picarillo continued, "although the Irish government received a fair bit of criticism, their clear and concise actions taken early in the crisis continues to bare fruit, as the country is emerging from the crisis at a steady pace. Bravo."
"With the exceptionally high rate jobless rate, the negative pattern of job data, weakening consumer spending, and slow overall economic growth it is likely that the eurozone crisis will continue to linger well into 2014. The ECB meets in the first week of June, their actions will be closely watched," Mr. Picarillo Conculded.
Steve Picarillo is an internationally recognized financial executive, analyst and author. Steve has spent most of his career on “Wall Street” in two of the leading rating agencies as a senior lead analyst covering the largest financial institutions across US and Western Europe. Mr. Picarillo recently launched several businesses, including consulting services to large financial institutions, a cost savings consulting services focusing on small and mid-sized companies, and a franchise consulting and optimization business. Steve is also a branding expert, an expert on the global economic environment, and a motivational speaker. Steve is currently writing a book chronicling his experiencing as a Wall Street insider at rating agencies.
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Related websites include www.stevepicarillo.com, www.creativeadvisorygroup.com and www.creativefranchisegroup.com.
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Source: www.abnewswire.com
