Eurozone unemployment reaches a staggering high of 12%, reports Bloomberg News:
The euro-zone economy has contracted for five straight quarters and that trend is forecast to continue in the first three months of this year, a separate Bloomberg survey shows. The European Central Bank, which holds a rate-setting meeting this week, forecasts the economy will shrink 0.5 percent in 2013. The ECB has held its key rate at 0.75 percent since July.
“An end to the euro zone’s labor-market downturn is not yet in sight,” Martin van Vliet, economist at ING Bank NV, said in a research note.