While most indicators suggest continued progress for the U.S. labor market, data indicate that labor markets in Europe remain stagnant. In March, the jobless rate was 11.8 percent in the 18 nations that share the euro currency, or 5 and half percentage points above the corresponding rate in America. The Eurozone unemployment rate has been unchanged since December according to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union. For the entire 28-nation European Union, the job rate stands at 10.5 percent. Nearly 26 million people across the European, including 5.3 million young people, were unemployed.
A prominent London-based economist, Christian Schulz, recently indicated that given the meager pace of labor market recovery in Europe, it may take years, if not decades to restore the 7.5 million jobs Europe has lost since 2008. As reported in the New York Times, Europe’s lowest jobless rates can be found in Austria, 4.9 percent, and in Germany, 5.1 percent. Unemployment is Greece, however, stands at nearly 27 percent while unemployment in Spain remains above 25 percent. French unemployment stands at more than 10 percent.
