Record unemployment in eurozone

Eurozone unemployment rose to a record 11.8% in November 2012 from 11.7% the previous month, according to latest EU unemployment figures from Eurostat, the European Commission's statistics office.  

Unemployment in the EU as a whole remained stable at 10.7%. In all, more than 26 million Europeans were out of work in November - the highest figure since the euro was launched more than a decade ago.

The figures suggest that Europe's economies are still struggling to create jobs. In November 2011, unemployment had stood at 10.6% in the eurozone and at 10.0% in the EU as a whole.  

The highest unemployment rates were recorded in Spain with 26.6% and Greece with 26.0%, while Austria (4.5%), Luxembourg (5.1%), Germany (5.4%) and the Netherlands (5.6%) had the lowest unemployment rates.  

Youth unemployment continued to rise to 24.4% in the eurozone, up from 21.6% a year earlier, and to 23.7% in the EU as a whole, up from 22.2%. Greece (57.6%) and Spain (56.5%) recorded the highest youth unemployment rates.