Eurozone unemployment hits new record in May

Unemployment in the 17-country euro currency bloc hit another record in May as the crippling financial crisis pushed the continent toward the brink of recession, according to new official figures out this morning. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, says unemployment rose to 11.1% in May from 11% the previous month. May’s rate was the highest since the euro was launched in 1999 and adds further urgency to the eurozone countries’ plan to create economic growth and cut excessive government debt. May’s unemployment rate compares badly with an unemployment rate of 8.2% in the United States and 4.4% in Japan, and is expected to rise further in the coming months as the eurozone economy is forecast to slide back into recession this year. Six countries in the eurozone, including Spain and Italy, remain in recession—technically defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. In total, 17.6 million people were out of work in the eurozone in May, up 88,000 on the month before and 1.8 million more than the number of unemployed a year earlier. Across the wider 27-country European Union, which includes non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland, unemployment edged up to 10.3% in May from 10.2% the month before. The Associated Press has the full story and more figures from today’s report here.