On Jan 8 Eurostat confirmed that unemployment in Europe does not look any better than in the USA.

The euro area* unemployment rate was 10.0% in November 2009, compared with 9.9% in October 2009 . It was 8.0% in November 2008.

For the euro area this is the highest rate since August 1998.

The EU27** unemployment rate reached 9.5% in November 2009, compared with 9.4% in October 2009 . It was 7.5% in November 2008.

For the EU 27 this is the highest rate since the start of the series (January 2000).

Compared to a year ago, all member countries recorded an increase in their unemployment rate.

The smallest increases were recorded in Germany (7.1% to 7.6%), Luxembourg (5.2% to 6.0%) and Malta (6.2% to 7.0%).

The highest increases were in Latvia (10.2% to 22.3%), Estonia (6.5% to 15.2% between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009) and Lithuania (6.4% to 14.6% between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009).

Graphically it looks like this:

Source: Eurostat

This is most probably the most optimistic measure of unemployment as a laundry list of social programs are keeping the numbers low.

For example the German government-funded short-time working program, known in German as Kurzarbeit with more than a million participants as September 2009.

I a not sure what is keeping the numbers so low in Holland and Austria. Especially Austria with its strong links with eastern Europe?

Does anybody have any ideas?

Definitions:
* The euro area (EA16) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

** The EU27  includes Belgium  (BE), Bulgaria  (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland  (PL), Portugal  (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

 Tim du Toit is the editor of Eurosharelab. Kindly note that this blog is published for information purposes and is not investment advice. Please refer to our disclaimer.

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