Eurozone Unemployment at Record High

The 17-nation eurozone's unemployment rate reached the highest level since the creation of the common currency 13 years ago, climbing to 11% in April as employers slashed 110,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate in the broader 27-nation area that makes up the European Union rose to 10.3% in April, as employers trimmed 102,000 jobs from their payrolls. That was highest EU unemployment rate on records that go back to 2000. There were 24.7 million unemployed in the EU in April, of whom 17.4 million were in the eurozone. Both figures are far above the 12.7 million unemployed in the United States, which has a population about 6% less than the eurozone.

The U.S. May jobs report, also released Friday, showed that U.S. employers added 69,000 jobs, while unemployment ticked up to 8.2%. While both results were much worse than the forecasts of economists surveyed by CNNMoney, who had been expecting 150,000 new jobs to keep unemployment at 8.1%, it was far better than Europe's job picture. Read more >>