Eurozone unemployment reaches record high of 11.6 percent

Unemployment in the 17-country Eurozone hit a record high of 11.6 percent in September.

The rate was reported by the EU’s statistics office, Eurostat, and was up from an upwardly revised 11.5 percent in August, according to the Associated Press. In total, 18.49 million people were unemployed in the Eurozone in September, up 146,000 people from the previous month. The increase is the biggest in the past three months.

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But unemployment rates within the Eurozone vary drastically from one country to the next, reported CNN. Spain has the highest unemployment rate at 25.8 percent, followed by Greece with 25.1 percent and Portugal with 15.7 percent. On the other hand, Austria has the lowest rate at 4.4 percent, followed by Luxembourg with 5.2 percent, and Germany and the Netherlands, each with 5.4 percent.

The Eurostat data were announced just as Eurozone finance ministers were preparing for a conference call to discuss numerous difficult issues, according to The New York Times. Two of those issues were Greece’s attempt to right its finances and the possibility that Spain might need to rely on its partners for a bailout.