Euro Zone Unemployment at Record High

The euro zone's giant debt burden continues to negatively effect the region's economy. Reports from yesterday indicated that the Spanish economy has slid into recession, and a new report from Wednesday shows that unemployment has risen to record levels. According to Eurostat, the EU's official statistics office, the jobless rate in March was 10.9%. This compares to 9.9% March unemployment in 2011. This is the highest level since the currency bloc was formed in 1999. The Los Angeles Times reports that the 17 countries which make up the EU now have 17 million people who are unemployed. This is a 169,000 increase versus February, and 1.7 million more than last March. Similar to the situation in the United States, young people have been hit particularly hard. Across the euro zone, 22.1% of people under the age of 25 are now unemployed. This figure rises above 50% in Greece and Spain. The total unemployment rate in Greece sits at 21.7% and it is 24.1% in Spain. France's unemployment rate is holding steady according to the report at 10%. The countries with the lowest percentage of joblessness were Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany.