Brussels, 02/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The unemployment rate in the eurozone during the months of January and February this year remained at 12% from the beginning of the year. The rate in the EU27 was not stable as the rate of unemployment progressed from 10.8% to 10.9% in February.
Eurostat, the EU statistical office, revised its estimates for the period on Tuesday 2 April. The rise in unemployment in the eurozone was 0.1% larger than predicted during January. The evocative threshold of 12%, which corresponds to around 26,338 million Europeans, was reached from that month. In parallel, young unemployed persons are far greater in number. There were 23.5% of young unemployed in the EU in February and 23.9% in the eurozone.
The breakdown of good and bad pupils remains the same. Austria, with its 4.9% rate (the lowest rate in the whole EU), continues to cause envy and to be designated by the European Commission as a model for the other member states, especially for its ability to maintain a very low youth unemployment rate (9.9% compared to 24.2% in the eurozone). The situation is similar a little further north. Some states may accuse it of unfair competition (see EUROPE 10810) but Germany is still doing just as well with the number of unemployed in that country remaining below the 5.5% mark.
On the other side of the coin, the Iberian Peninsula has to face unemployment rates that are now at a peak (26.3% in Spain and 17.5% in Portugal), with no end to the tunnel in sight. Although the Spanish government hopes to negotiate with the Commission to give it more time to reduce its public debt, while triggering various measures to combat youth unemployment, the latter remains the highest in the EU, alongside youth unemployment in Greece (58.4%). Following this trend, the 60% mark for this category of the population could one day be reached in both countries given that already over one quarter of active persons cannot find work. (JK/transl.jl)