EU: youth unemployment, Greece surpasses Spain\'s record

In February 2012 Greeks under age 25 who are unemployed reached 52.7%, surpassing even the most recent figure available for Spain (April, 51.5%). Madrid continues to have the highest overall unemployment rate in the EU (24.3%). These figures were provided by Eurostat, which said that in April there were 5.462 million unemployed young people in the EU-27, including 3.358 million only in the Eurozone. The gap has therefore widened with EU countries in which the rate of the unemployed among those under age 25 is lower, such as Germany (7.9%). In the Mediterranean area, in addition to Greece and Spain, there was also an increase in the figure between March and April 2012 in Portugal (36.6%, compared with 35.9%) and France (22% compared with 21.75), while there was a slight decline in Italy (from 35.9% to 35.2%). Compared with April 2011, the unemployment rate among those under age 25 rose by 268,000 people in the Eu-27 and by 214,000 in the eurozone. In April 2012 youth unemployment rose to 22.4% in the EU-27 and 22.2% in the eurozone, compared with 20.9% and 20.4% in the same period in 2011. The overall number of the unemployed rose to 11% in the eurozone in April, compared with 10.9% in March and 9.9% in April 2011. In the EU-27 there are a total of 24.667 million unemployed, with an unemployment rate of 10.3%. In the eurozone the number of unemployed was at 17.405 million in April, compared with 17.295 in March and 15.608 in April 2011. After Spain\'s record high rate comes Greece (21.7% in February, and among Mediterranean countries France and Italy were at 10.2% in April, with Portugal at 15.2%. (ANSAmed).