The Eurozone's unemployment rate for July remained at a record high of 11.3 percent, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat revealed today, in line with the analyst consensus.

The rate for June was revised higher by one decimal point from the preliminary estimate of 11.2%. In July of last year, the unemployment rate stood at 10.1%.

Eurostat estimates that 25.254m people were unemployed in the 27-nation European Union, of which 18.002m were in the Eurozone.

The lowest unemployment rates are in Austria (4.5%), Holland (5.3%), and Luxembourg (5.5%), while the highest unemployment is seen in Spain (25.1%), Greece (23.1%), Portugal (15.7%), and Ireland (14.9%).

A major concern is unemployment among the under-25s, currently at 22.6% for the Eurozone. The lowest rates are in Germany (8%), Austria (8.9%), and Holland (9.2%), and the highest are in Greece (53.8%), Spain (52.9%), Portugal (36.4%), and Ireland (30.7%).

In comparison to other major economies, we see that unemployment is much greater in Europe than in the US (8.3%), Japan (4.3%), and the UK (8.0%).

Opinion

Unemployment is at record levels and expected to move even higher due to the weak outlook for the European economy. Over the last 12 months, the EU-27 has destroyed two million jobs, a cause of great concern, Digital Look analysts said.

"The data is in line with estimates and should therefore have a limited impact on the euro, equities, and bonds."

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