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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Euro area unemployment at record 12 percent





Spain and Greece have mass unemployment and many other countries are seeing their numbers swell to uncomfortably high levels as governments across the region enact tough austerity measures to get a handle on their debts.

"[...] unacceptably high levels of unemployment are a tragedy for Europe and a signal of how serious a crisis some eurozone countries are now in," said EU Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor.

The worry in the markets is that the chaos surrounding the country's bailout has reignited concerns over the euro and may have further dented confidence across the eurozone — a backdrop that's hardly conducive to job creation, economic recovery and stability across the eurozone.

[...] while markets have improved, the eurozone economy sunk back into recession as many governments in the region enacted big spending cuts and tax increases.

The monthly purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector — a gauge of business activity published by financial information company Markit — fell to a 3-month low.

"While in some respects it is reassuring to see that the events in Cyprus did not cause an immediate impact on business activity, with the final survey results even coming in slightly higher than the flash estimate, the concern is that the latest chapter in the region's crisis will have hit demand further in April," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.


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