The Eurozone economy took another knock on Friday after unemployment across the embattled region rose to a new record high.
The jobless rate across the Eurozone nation’s increased to 11.9% in January, up from the previous record high of 11.8% in December 2012. Once again the highest rate of people of out of work was in Greece, which posted a staggering level of 27%. Spain was close behind with over 26.2%. According to the Eurostat data agency over 19 million people across Europe are out of work.
That’s the population of a medium sized country.
In the wider European Union the unemployment rate edged up to 10.8% with a total of 26.2 million people unable to find work. Eurostat said that compared with December, some 201,000 joined the jobless queues in the Eurozone in January and 222,000 in the EU.
Despite all of the talk on the markets and by politician that the worst for Europe is over they will have a hard time explaining why the jobless rate continues to rise to unprecedented levels. Youth unemployment continues to soar.
In January the youth unemployment rate rose to 24.2% compared to the 21.9% posted the previous year. Unless the youth situation is tackled the whole of Europe is leaving itself exposed to civil unrest in the next few years. Youths who have no chance of finding work are almost certainly going to demand to take what has been denied them at some point, they will only remain the tentatively named ‘lost generation’ for so long.
France meanwhile has become the latest country to cause concern. Unemployment across the country increased for the 21st consecutive month and is expected to rise to an all time high next month. The contagion from the poorer struggling regions appears to have finally seeped into the northern bloc.
As a result of the jobs data the Euro has fallen against the US Dollar. Against the Pound it is trading upwards after the UK posted a shock contraction in its manufacturing output.
Current Euro exchange rates
As of 11:30 am
The Euro to Pound Sterling exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 0.8622
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.3081
The Euro to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.2781
The Euro to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.5778
