ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Latest unemployment rates released by Eurostat show the eurozone has now reached the 12 per cent mark. This compares to 10.9 per cent a year ago, and recent figures of 7.7 per cent in the USA and 4.2 per cent in Japan.

For the EU 27 the rate is 10.9 per cent, slightly higher than the 10.2 per cent of February 2012.
The number of people seeking employment in February was 19,071 million, almost two million more than the previous year. For the EU 27 the total number of unemployed stood at 26,338 million, more than two million more than in 2012.

The country with the highest level of unemployment appearing in the chart is Spain with 26.3 per cent, up from 23.9 per cent in 2012. Second highest is Portugal with 17.5 per cent, up from 14.8 per cent the previous year. Next is Ireland with 14.2 percent, marking an improvement compared to the previous year at 15.1 per cent, and Cyprus at 14 per cent, a dramatic increase from 10.2 per cent the previous year.

The lowest unemployment rates are recorded in Austria (4.8 per cent), Germany (5.4 per cent) and Luxembourg (5.5 per cent). No statistics for Greece were recorded in the data.

“Such unacceptably high levels of unemployment are a tragedy for Europe and a signal of how serious a crisis some eurozone countries are now in," commented László Andor, employment and social affairs commissioner. "The EU and its member states have to mobilise all available instruments to create jobs and return to sustainable growth."