Financial Crisis, Austerity, and the European Jobless Rate

So, the big news out of Europe today (and the reason why the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries are rising while everything else falls) is that the jobless rate across the pond has reached a record high at 10.9 percent as protests against austerity measures ratchet up in advance of elections this weekend in France and Greece.

This Daily Chart from The Economist provides some clarifying details about the jobs situation:

Of the 17.4 million Europeans who are now without a job and still looking for one (i.e., as in the U.S., there are millions more who have quit their job search and are no longer “counted” as unemployed), a whopping 3 million of those are under 25 years old, a likely indication that protests against austerity measures that are now seen as the cause, not the cure, will ratchet up along with the temperature this spring and summer.

One Response to Financial Crisis, Austerity, and the European Jobless Rate

  1. Jim Beam May 2, 2012 at 7:21 AM #

    Now there’s a shocker…….

    The unemployment rate in Germany was HIGHER before the financial crisis than it is now.

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