Catherwood LibraryILR School

The employment numbers for the European Union in October have been released, and unemployment has remained steady since September, though still at its highest level since 1998. Unemployment in the 16-country Euro Zone region remained at 9.8%, consistent with the numbers from September (which were adjusted slightly upwards in the most recent report). A total of 15.567 million people are affected in the Euro Zone. The Euro Zone's largest economy, Germany, has kept unemployment relatively low, at 7.5%, through government support. However, the second largest, France, has hit an unemployment rate of 10.1%. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.3% for the entire 27-member European Union, meaning that some 22.5 million in total are out of work. Because unemployment often lags behind a recession, experts expect unemployment to continue rising (topping out at about 11%) through the next year.