Eurozone jobless rate hits record high, 11 percent

European unemployment has reached a record high of 11 percent, according to Eurostat.

The European debt crisis has not abated with record high unemployment and youth unemployment, and manufacturing rapidly shrinking, the research body said Friday.

The unemployment figures are the highest since the creation of the eurozone in 1999, reported AFP.

In total, more than 17 million people are out of work in Europe while nearly 3.5 million young people under 25 are unemployed.

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"The labor market recession in the euro zone continues to spread and deepen," ING Bank analyst Martin van Vliet told Reuters.

"The lack of change in the overall euro zone unemployment rate reflected increasing disparities between countries, with the jobless rate in Germany falling to 5.4 percent and unemployment in Spain and Portugal increasing further from already intolerably high levels. Unemployment in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium also edged higher."

The eurozone saw 110,000 people lose their jobs in April, the 12th month of job losses for the 17-country single currency area.

Economists believe that the new numbers show the crisis deepening and believe unemployment could reach 11.5 percent this year, reported the Financial Times.

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