Record 11.1 Percent Unemployment in Eurozone

The Economic Times reports: 

Unemployment in the 17 country euro currency bloc hit another record in May as the continent continued to be buffeted by its debt crisis, official figures showed Monday. 

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said unemployment rose to 11.1 per cent in May from 11 percent the previous month. That's the highest rate since the euro was launched in 1999, and compares badly with an unemployment rate of 8.2 per cent in the United States and only 4.4 per cent in Japan. 

In total, 17.6 million people were out of work in the eurozone in May, 1.8 million higher than a year earlier. 

Unemployment has been edging higher for over a year as concerns over the debt crisis and the future of the euro currency itself have weighed on economic activity. 

Europe's numbers look a little better: "Across the wider 27-country European Union, which includes non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland, unemployment edged up to 10.3 per cent in May from 10.2 percent the month before."