Euro unemployment rate stays at record high
(BRUSSELS) - The unemployment rate across the 16 euro countries remained at a record high 10 percent in March, with more than 100,000 more people joining the jobless, official figures showed on Friday.
The jobless rate for the common currency area was unchanged from February, running at the highest since the euro came into being in 1999 and with almost 1.4 million more people out of work than 12 months earlier, the EU's Eurostat data agency said.
The figures revealed huge divergences, showing Spain, the latest eurozone country to come under pressure in the fallout from the Greek debt crisis, with a jobless rate of 19.1 percent, higher than anywhere save Latvia, on 22.3 percent.
By contrast, Germany, Europe's leading economy, improved to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent, the only European Union country to post better figures.
Germany has managed to limit job losses by offering subsidies to companies putting workers on shorter hours rather than laying them off directly.
March 2010 Euro area unemployment rate at 10.0% EU27 at 9.6% [Eurostat]
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