Eurozone jobless rate remains at record high

The Eurostat data agency has reported that the eurozone’s overall unemployment rate stayed at a record high of 12.1 percent in June for the fourth consecutive month.

On Wednesday, the agency published the new jobless data for the eurozone, which has seen its unemployment rate increase constantly since April 2011.

The 12.1 percentage translates into more than 19 million Europeans without a job in the eurozone.

In addition, the data showed that the youth unemployment rate in the eurozone increased in June to 23.9 percent from the previous month’s 23.8 percent.

The region’s youths under the age of 25 have been hit worst by the financial crisis, with a staggering 58.7 percent of the young in Greece without work and in Spain the figure is 56.1 percent.

According to the agency, the eurozone members with the lowest unemployment rate were Austria and Germany, while Greece and Spain continued to have the highest jobless rate in the bloc.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on July 16 that the eurozone unemployment rate would continue to increase until it reaches a new record high of 12.3 percent by the end of 2014.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.

The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.