Eurozone Unemployment Rate Climbing

Unemployment is set to return as a major headache in Europe, with the European Commission forecasting on Nov. 3 that the eurozone jobless rate will rise by more than one percentage point by 2010.

In the face of extremely weak economic growth, unemployment would rise from 7.6% of the workforce this year to 8.4% in 2009 and to 8.7% in 2010, the commission forecast.

Long the bane of European politicians, unemployment had been gradually falling in recent years but began creeping higher in April from a record low of 7.2% in March.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008