Eurozone unemployment at new high

Unemployment across the 17-nation eurozone hit a record 18 million in July, the EU statistics agency says.

Some 88,000 more people were added to the jobless total, but upwardly-revised data for June meant the unemployment rate remained at 11.3%.

Eurostat said the 18,002,000 jobless total was the highest since records began in 1995.

The highest unemployment rate in the eurozone was in Spain, at 25.1%. The lowest was in Austria, at 4.5%.

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in 10 eurozone countries, increased in 16 and remained stable in Slovenia.

The largest falls were observed in Estonia (13.2% to 10.1%), Lithuania (15.2% to 13.0%) and Latvia (17.0% to 15.9%)

Meanwhile, the highest increases were registered in Greece (16.8% to 23.1%), Spain (21.7% to 25.1%) and Cyprus (7.7% to 10.9%).

Spain and Greece, which are struggling to tackle sovereign debt and banking crises, recorded jobless rates of more than 50% in the under-25s age-group. –BBC News