Eurozone unemployment rises to 8.5pc
Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro rose in February to 8.5 percent to hit the highest level in close to three years, according to official EU data on Wednesday.
The unemployment rate hit the highest level since May 2006 in February as an estimated 319,000 jobs were shed across the single currency bloc, the European Union's Eurostat data agency said.
The eurozone joblessness rate stood at 8.3 percent in January and 7.2 percent in February 2008.
"Extended and now deep economic contraction, extremely weak business confidence and deteriorating profitability is weighing down ever harder on labour markets," IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said.
After gradually falling in recent years to a record low of 7.2 percent in March 2008, unemployment in the then 15 eurozone countries began creeping higher from April 2008 in the face of a deteriorating economic outlook.
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