Eurozone UE rate hits another high in May

[Tender Branson]

WASHINGTON -- Unemployment in the Eurozone reached a record high of 12.1% in May as the 17-nation region continued to struggle against its longest-ever recession, officials said Monday.

There were 19.2 million jobless people in the region, up by 1.3 million from a year earlier, according to Eurostat, the single-currency zone's statistical office. The unemployment rate was 11.3% in May 2012.

Inflation in the region increased at a 1.4% annual rate in May, up from 1.2% the previous month, Eurostat said in a separate report. The figure is below the European Central Bank's target of 2% annual price growth.

Eurostat initially had reported a 12.2% unemployment rate for April, but that figure was revised to 12% on Monday, making May's 12.1% the new high since the Eurozone was created in 1999.

The revisions mean the European unemployment picture is better than expected, said Howard Archer, chief economist for Europe and Britain at IHS Global Insight.

But there were 67,000 more people out of work in May than in the previous month, he noted.

"The still marked rise in Eurozone unemployment in May highlights the fact that the Eurozone continues to face major headwinds and still has its work cut out to return to growth," Archer said.

Spain had the highest May unemployment rate, at 26.9%. Greece had a 26.8% unemployment rate in March, the latest figure available for that nation.

Austria had the region's lowest jobless rate, at 4.7%, followed by Germany at 5.3%.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 7.6% in May. That figure is projected to dip to 7.5% in June when the Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report on Friday.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-eurozone-unemployment-20130701,0,4685446.story

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Austerity is working fantastically.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The Modern European Depression continues.

You hear that sucking sound?  That's the sound of Germany and Austria draining the life out of the rest of Europe so they can stagnate while everybody else wonders at it while in freefall.

[Ban my account ffs!]

It's so obvious at this point that the crisis in Europe is purely manufactured.  UE had begun to recover after the 2008/9 crisis during 2009/10.  Then sometime around early 2011, when AUSTERITY became the name of the game, Europe fell into the toilet.

The people shouting austerity should be rounded up and tried for crimes against humanity.  (kidding... but they should be thoroughly ignored).

[Franknburger]

The Modern European Depression continues.

You hear that sucking sound?  That's the sound of Germany and Austria draining the life out of the rest of Europe so they can stagnate while everybody else wonders at it while in freefall.

If my eyes don't deceive me, out of the 27 EU member states, 13 have unemployment rates below 9%, i.e. are in a similar range as the US. Among these 13 "bloodsuckers" are economic heavyweights like Malta and Estonia. There are also  two countries, namely Spain and Greece, where unemployment is above 20%.
 I don't think the "two against the rest of Europe" meme is appropriate at all, but if you insist on singling out two countries that are obviously economically moving away from the European mainstream, I would rather look for them at the right-hand side of the unemployment chart.

Reasons? Beet has recently done a pretty good analysis in this thread (scroll down towards the end):
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=16244.75

And ,yes: It is high time to increase German wages - and that is to some extent also happening. 2.4% increase as per July 1st, 2013, plus 2.2% increase per May 2014 for the automotive, metal-processing and electronics industries. Considering the imbalances within the Eurozone, it should have been more. However, Europe is no island, competitiveness vis-à-vis Asian countries needs also to be maintained.

[Franknburger]

It's so obvious at this point that the crisis in Europe is purely manufactured.  UE had begun to recover after the 2008/9 crisis during 2009/10.  Then sometime around early 2011, when AUSTERITY became the name of the game, Europe fell into the toilet.

The people shouting austerity should be rounded up and tried for crimes against humanity.  (kidding... but they should be thoroughly ignored).

Let's add a bit more detail to the analysis by looking how unemployment has developed since May 2011 in individual member states (I exclude Croatia for lack of EUROSTAT coverage in 2011), Data is given as UE May 2011 / UE May 2013/ Change (abs.):

UE decrease (9)
DK       7.6/   6.8 / -0.8
DE       6.0/   5.3 / -0.7
EE      13.1/  8.3 / -4.8
IE       14.7/ 13.6/ -1.1
LV      17.1/12.4/ -4.7
LT      15.7/11.7/ -4.0
HU     10.9/10.5/-0.4
MT       6.8/  6.2/-0.6
UK       7.9/ 7.7/ -0.2

UE increase (18)
BE       7.2 / 8.6  / +1.5
BG      11.2/ 11.7 / +0.5
CZ       6.8 /  7.2  / +0.4
EL      16.9/ 26.8/  +9.9
ES      20.9/26.9/  +6.0
FR        9.6/10.4/  +0.8
IT         8.2/12.2/ +4.0
CY        7.5/16.3/ +8.8
LU      4.7/ 5.7/ +1.0
NL      4.2/ 6.6/ +1.4
AT      4.2/ 4.7/ +0.5
PL      9.6/10.7/+1.1
PT    12.7/17.6/+4.9
RO     7.5/ 7.6/ +0.1
SI      7.9/11.2/+3.3
SK    13.4/14.2/+0.8
FI       7.8/ 8.4/+0.6
SE      7.6/7.9/ +0.3

EU-27: 9.5/10.9/+1.4

The good news first: Unemployment has substantially decreased in all three Baltic states, and is also going down steadily in Ireland (so far on "Austerity does not work"). Aside from Germany, Denmark and the UK are as well showing below-average and decreasing unemployment rates. Positive surprises are Malta and Hungary.

In two-third of the member states, however, unemployment has been rising.  This includes eight countries with  modest increases below 1% (FR, SE/FI, AT/CZ/SK, RO/BG), plus Poland and the three Benelux countries with increase up to 1.5%.

The 'problem zone' starts with Slovenia and Italy, and things have gotten extremely bad in Spain, Greece and Cyprus. This is a relevant portion of the EU, and a reason for the Union to worry. However, the Mediterranean is not representative for the EU as a whole. More than three-quarters of the EU increase in unemployment stem from three countries, namely Italy, Spain and Greece.