JUST HOURS after European Union leaders signed a decree agreeing to focus energy on generating jobs and growth, their challenge was brought into stark relief by data yesterday showing euro zone unemployment at a record high.
The number of unemployed in the 17 countries of the single currency bloc rose in December for an eighth consecutive month to 16.5 million – roughly the population of the Netherlands. The unemployment rate at year end stood at 10.4 per cent, the highest since the euro was introduced a decade ago, according to seasonally adjusted data from the EU’s statistical arm.
A 0.1 percentage point rise from November’s estimate compared with a rate of 10 per cent a year earlier. US joblessness in the same period fell nearly one percentage point, to 8.5 per cent in December.
Critics of EU efforts argue that Brussels has focused on fiscal austerity at the expense of growth.
“The presentation of a strategy for growth is a strategy in name only, being far too narrow in scope, too vague in commitments and too small in ambitions to have much impact,” said Sony Kapoor, head of Re-Define, a consultancy.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso presented EU leaders yesterday with a dire report on employment, especially among the young. Countries such as Spain and Greece have youth jobless rates of nearly 50 per cent. “We cannot accept that almost a quarter of Europe’s young people are unemployed,” Mr Barroso said.
Martin Van Vliet, economist at ING, said: “The high and rising unemployment rates in the periphery cast a dark cloud over growth prospects.” – (Copyright the Financial Times Limited 2012)
