Economics Snapshot - Unemployment in the Euro Zone

There are sixteen member nations inside the Euro Zone and a deepening recession allied to falling prices is putting the monetary union under increasing pressure. Steeply rising unemployment is both an economic and social issue and it is also affecting budget deficits as tax revenues tail away.

The latest unemployment data for the Euro Zone finds that

158,000 people joined unemployment lines across the euro zone in June, bringing the number of jobless to 14.9 million There are more people out of work than the populations of Austria and Ireland combined. Youth unemployment is a major problem in Europe. The unemployment rate among those under age 25 was 19.5% in June. Spain has the highest unemployment rate at 18.1 percent - followed by Latvia and Estonia. The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (3.3%) and Austria (4.4%) UK unemployment is 7.5% of the labour force using the standardised LFS measure *21.526 million men and women in the EU27, of which 14.896 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in June 2009. 5 million of the unemployed are youth workers.

More here on a 10 year high for European unemployment