Unemployment despair in Europe

Unemployment rate reaches new high in Portugal and Italy

on May 31 | in All, Economy, Europe | by | with No Comments

Portugal continues submerged on a deep financial and economic crisis and another indicator proving that reality shows up when we look at the unemployment rate and see it reaching its highest peak ever. According to data reported by the Eurostat, the Portuguese country was facing a 17.8% unemployment rate in April, which precisely sets a new all-time record for the “Lusitanos“. One way to look at things is to notice that are a couple other countries in Europe in worse situations, since Portugal is currently standing as 3rd on the top of the unemployment rate rankings. Leading this table is Greece, with its population’s unemployment having a reported 27% value, immediately followed by Portugal‘s neighbors from Spain, with an also impressive and worrying figure around 26.8%.

The unemployment average inside the European Union is currently 10.9% (which corresponds to 26.5 million people), while in the Eurozone the numbers are a bit higher, with the bar going up to 12.2% (19.37 million people). From the 22 countries that have reported their unemployment stats concerning the month of April, only three of them actually managed to present some improvement and saw this economical indicator lowering from its previous month value: Bulgaria, Ireland and Malta.

Youth people looking for jobs

As for Italy, Apri’ls unemployment rate got to the 12% mark, which also means that the country currently governed by Enrico Letta set a new record since 1977 . Moreover, the youth unemployment rate (comprises people aged between 15 and 24 years old) is at 40.5%, which also represents the maximum value ever registered since 1966. Portugal‘s case isn’t much different though, with this same indicator registering a figure around 42%. Once again, Greece and Spain naturally end up struggling in this department, as they have the highest youth unemployment rates of the EU, with reported values of 62.5% and 56.4% respectively.

In order to address this crucial issue, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed that both her country and France have decided to mobilize funds of 6 billion euros meant to support and promote more youth employment opportunities. Merkel has also stated that the budget consolidation and growth are two faces from the same coin. One of the measures that is expected to be included into this economical program will be widening the reach of the Erasmus program across several European countries, so that in the future students may have a bigger labor market at their disposal.

Sources: guardian.co.uk / jornaldenegocios.pt

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