Euro Zone Unemployment Approaching Eleven Percent and Getting Worse

[Conley]

Unemployment in the euro zone reached its highest level in almost 15 years in February, with more than 17 million people out of work, and economists said they expected job office queues to grow even longer later this year.

Joblessness in the 17-nation currency zone rose to 10.8 percent - in line with a Reuters poll of economists - and 0.1 points worse than in January, Eurostat said on Monday.

Economists are divided over the wisdom of European governments' drive to bring down fiscal deficits so aggressively as economic troubles hit tax revenues, consumers' spending power and business confidence which collapsed late last year.

February's unemployment level - last hit in June 1997 - marked the 10th straight monthly rise and contrasts sharply with the United States where the economy has been adding jobs since late last year.

"We expect it to go higher, to reach 11 percent by the end of the year," said Raphael Brun-Aguerre, an economist at JP Morgan in London. "You have public sector job cuts, income going down, weak consumption. The economic growth outlook is negative and is going to worsen unemployment."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/us-eurozone-unemployment-idUSBRE8310CQ20120402

17 MILLION people out of work. You can bet they are going to keep going out on the streets. The question now is how much worse will it get?

[Peter1469]

And those are just averages. Break the numbers down between various groups, like people between 18-25 v. 26-50 for example. The young generations unemployment rates top 40% in some European nations.

[Peter1469]

http://www.economist.com/node/21528614

[Conley]

And those are just averages. Break the numbers down between various groups, like people between 18-25 v. 26-50 for example. The young generations unemployment rates top 40% in some European nations.

Great point, it has the makings of a revolution. A lot of angry, violent youth with nothing but desperation and a lot of time on their hands. They don't feel like they have much to lose by upsetting the apple cart.

[Conley]

http://www.economist.com/node/21528614

Great article


MARIA GIL ULLDEMOLINS is a smart, confident young woman. She has one degree from Britain and is about to conclude another in her native Spain. And she feels that she has no future.

Ms Ulldemolins belongs to a generation of young Spaniards who feel that the implicit contract they accepted with their country—work hard, and you can have a better life than your parents—has been broken. Before the financial crisis Spanish unemployment, a perennial problem, was pushed down by credit-fuelled growth and a prolonged construction boom: in 2007 it was just 8%. Today it is 21.2%, and among the young a staggering 46.2%. “I trained for a world that doesn’t exist,” says Ms Ulldemolins.

Is this what we're headed for?

[Peter1469]

The break up of the Eurozone. Then countries will go back to their old currencies and print their way out of debt. This of course will cause high inflation. But that is better than letting the economy collapse.