Euro zone unemployment rose unexpectedly in August, data showed today, adding to signals the economy of the 15-country area is slowing sharply.
The jobless rate increased to 7.5 per cent from July's upwardly revised 7.4 per cent, the European Union statistics office, Eurostat, said.
The August level was well above the 6.1 per cent unemployment rate in the United States and 4.2 per cent in Japan.
Eurostat said 11.596 million people were without jobs in the euro zone in August, up by 90,000 from July and 272,000 compared to the same period last year.
Economists say the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator, which is last to show changes in the economy.
However, the growing number of jobless tallies with a sharply slowing economy, which is likely to have entered a technical recession over the second and third quarters of this year.
The data comes a day before the European Central Bank meets to decide on interest rates.
Markets expect that despite the slowdown and global financial turmoil, the ECB will leave borrowing costs at 4.25 per cent until at least December to fight inflation, which is still almost twice its target.
The biggest increase in unemployment came in Ireland, which already is in recession, where the rate rose to 6.2 per cent in August from 5.9 per cent in July.
Spain, which is slowing because the bursting of its housing bubble hit the construction sector, saw unemployment rise to 11.3 per cent from 11 per cent.
The euro zone's second-biggest economy, France, saw an increase in the jobless rate to 8 per cent from 7.8 per cent. The biggest, Germany, was the only country to report a fall in unemployment, to 7.2 per cent from 7.3 per cent.
Reuters