European unemployment
June 15, 2009
The figures, published by the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, represent the biggest quarterly jump in job losses since record-keeping began in 1995. Some 526,000 jobs were cut in the last quarter of 2008, reducing the total number of those in work across the zone to 146.2 million.
It is the third consecutive quarter in which the eurozone shed more jobs than it created, and Howard Archer, economist with IHS Global Insight, says the trend looks set to continue.
“Latest data and survey evidence point to serious weakness in eurozone labor markets in the second quarter,” he says.
Archer attributes the dramatic fall in employment opportunities to “extended and deep economic contraction, depressed business confidence and deteriorating profitability.”
Economic output across the 16-member states shrank by an unprecedented 2.5 percent, and consumer demand, crucial to the revival of the ailing global economy, has shown no sign of picking up.
Spain recorded the steepest levels of job cuts at 3.1 percent. Slovakia and Greece were also struggling to keep their citizens in work, with slashes of 1.9 and 1.8 percent respectively.
Germany, which is the largest economy in the eurozone, saw a 0.3 percent fall in employment.
tkw/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Susan Houlton