-EU President Herman Van Rompuy
The number of unemployed people in the 17-nation economy soared to a fresh high in April, after the currency bloc's recession deepened in the first three months of this year, increasing pressure on policy makers to spur economic growth. According to data provided by European Union's statistics office, the Eurozone unemployment rate jumped to 12.2% compared to 12.1% in March, in line with analysts' expectations. There are now extra 95,000 people out of work in the 17 countries that have the Euro in circulation, boosting the total up to 19.38 million.
Each fourth person in Greece (27.0%) and Spain (26.8%) are now unemployed, while the lowest jobless rate was registered in Austria at 4.9%. At the same time, the youth unemployment remains a serious concern, as. In April, 3.6 million people under the age of 25 were seeking for a job in the Eurozone, sending an unemployment rate to 24.4%.
As policy makers are still struggling to curb the unemployment in the region, the efficiency of austerity measures, implemented by many European governments, is called into question. Also on Friday the report showed that the region's consumer prices rose to 1.4% in May from 1.2% in the prior month, however being still under the ECB's 2% target level.
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