EUR Unemployment Hits Record High 11.9 percent

For Europe’s unemployed millions, 2013 has started where last year left off.
Official European Union figures published Friday showed unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high of 11.9% in January as the recession grinds on, and young people are paying a particularly heavy price.

Some 19 million people are out of work in the eurozone, 3.6 million of them under the age of 25, meaning nearly one in every four young people are without a job.
Compared with the same month a year earlier, the jobless total in the eurozone has increased by 1.9 million, with the depressed economies of southern Europe suffering the most.
Greece has an unemployment rate of 27%, while Spain is at 26.2% and Portugal is at 17.6%.
Italy is experiencing its highest level of unemployment in 21 years, and youth unemployment rose rapidly over the past 12 months to nearly 39%.
Italian voters backed the anti-austerity movement of Beppe Grillo in far greater numbers than expected earlier this week, depriving mainstream parties of a parliamentary majority and raising questions about the country’s commitment to economic reform.

via CNN

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza