By Renata GoldirovaEU Observer
Jobs in the European Union continued to disappear in June, with unemployment reaching a four-year high and putting extra pressure of the bloc's coffers to help laid-off workers back into employment.
According to fresh data released by the EU's statistics office, Eurostat, on Friday (31 July), some 21.5 million people - or 8.9 percent - were out of work in the 27-nation EU in June. The figure was 9.4 percent in the 16-member euro area - the highest in 10 years.
Spain, hit hard by the collapse of its construction sector, recorded the highest jobless rates at 18.1 percent, followed by Baltic States, Latvia (17.2 percent) and Estonia (17 percent).
On the other hand, labour markets in the Netherlands and Austria seem to be in the best shape. The two countries have just 3.3 percent and 4.4 percent unemployed respectively.
The European Commission has tried to put a positive spin on the new unemployment numbers, saying that the pace of job losses in the EU as a whole is slowing down.
Compared with May, the number of people unemployed increased by 246,000. "This is much less than monthly increases that we recorded in previous months," commission spokesperson Amelia Torres told journalists (31 July).
She added that "the peak appeared to had been reached in March" when unemployment went up by 646,000....(Remainder.)
