Eurozone unemployment rate at its highest level in over a decade
EUROZONE unemployment rose in July to its highest in more than 10 years, official data showed yesterday, but the number of jobless Germans dropped by 1,000 on seasonally-adjusted terms.
For the Eurozone as whole, the unemployment rate hit 9.5 per cent, the highest monthly rate since May 1999. In July 2008, the jobless rate was 7.5 per cent.
Figures from Eurostat also showed that 15.09m men and women were unemployed in July 2009, an increase of 167,000 on the previous month and a rise of 3.26m on July 2008.
As unemployment tends to lag any recovery, economists think it will be some time before any improvement in economic activity feeds through to help the jobs outlook substantially.
Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said: “We suspect that economic activity will remain too weak to actually generate net jobs until at least the second half of 2010.”
The limited increase in German unemployment has been the result of earlier labour market reforms, including, above all, subsidised short-term work.
More than 1m jobs fall under these arrangements, of which the first wave is due for expiry in the next few weeks.