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| Euro unemployment at decade high | Euro unemployment at decade high |
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| Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro increased in April to its highest level in nearly ten years, official data has shown. | Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro increased in April to its highest level in nearly ten years, official data has shown. |
| The unemployment rate in the eurozone rose to 9.2% from 8.9% in March, the highest rate since September 1999, the Eurostat data agency said. | The unemployment rate in the eurozone rose to 9.2% from 8.9% in March, the highest rate since September 1999, the Eurostat data agency said. |
| Unemployment in the wider 27-member European Union (EU) rose to 8.6% in April from 8.4% the previous month. | Unemployment in the wider 27-member European Union (EU) rose to 8.6% in April from 8.4% the previous month. |
| Eurostat estimates that 20.8m people in the EU were unemployed in April. | Eurostat estimates that 20.8m people in the EU were unemployed in April. |
| This was an increase of 556,000 from March's figure. | |
| It will be some time before any improvement in economic activity feeds through to help the jobs outlook Howard Archer, IHS Global Insight | |
| The number of people out of work in the eurozone increased by 396,000 to 14.58m. | |
| In April, Spain had the highest unemployment rate of any country in the EU at 18.1%, followed by Latvia (17.4%) and Lithuania (16.85). | |
| However, separate data from the Spanish Labour Ministry for May showed the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits in Spain fell slightly after 14 months of steady increases. | |
| The decline of 24,741 left the jobless total at 3,620,139. | |
| Rises across Europe | |
| Unemployment increased in 25 out of the 27 EU member states. Romania and Greece were the only countries which saw their unemployment rates fall. | |
| In Germany, Europe's biggest economy, unemployment rose to 7.7% from 7.6% in March. | |
| And in France, the second-biggest, unemployment increased to 8.9% from 8.8% a month earlier. | |
| Even if signs of economic recovery begin to emerge, economists warned that unemployment is a lagging indicator. | |
| "It will be some time before any improvement in economic activity feeds through to help the jobs outlook," said Howard Archer from IHS Global Insight. | |
| "Furthermore, we suspect that economic activity will remain too weak to actually generate jobs overall until well into 2010. | |
| "Deep and extended economic contraction, depressed business confidence and deteriorating profitability are currently increasingly feeding through to push unemployment up sharply across the eurozone." |