The rate of unemployment in the eurozone rose to 10.1% in April 2010, up from 10% in March and 9.2% in April last year.
Compared with March, the number of people unemployed increased by 25,000 in both the largest 27 countries in the EU (EU27) and the eurozone. Eurostat now estimates that 23.3m men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.8m were in the eurozone, were unemployed in April.
The Netherlands (4.1%) and Austria (4.9%) recorded the lowest unemployment rates among the member states, while Latvia (22.5%), Spain (19.7%) and Estonia (19.1% in the first quarter of 2010) recorded the highest jobless rates.
As in previous commentaries we believe that unemployment will continue to rise as austerity measures kick in throughout Europe as public sector excess is tackled leading to a ruction in consumer spending.
Our advice to those in employment is look before you leap and in the meantime look after your job and disregard a lot of the hubris about improving economic conditions as most of it is froth on the surface.
Author: Chris Slay
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