Just days after French President Francis Hollande announced the euro crisis was over, employment across the Eurozone collectively shrank 0.5 percent in the first quarter, bringing levels to their lowest in seven years.
A record 19.4 million people were out of work in April, when unemployment reached a record high, according to Eurostat data.
The drop left 145.1 million people employed, the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2005.
The worst unemployment is in Europe’s financial ‘south’ – Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal all drastically increased their jobless numbers.
In Greece, the number of people out of work increased by 2.3 percent, in Portugal 2.2 percent, in Cyprus 1.3 percent, in Italy 1.2 percent, and Slovenia, a country which has been on the tipping point of a bailout, neared 1 percent unemployment at 0.8 percent.