Eurozone Jobless Rate Hits Record 11.7%

Employers shed 173,000 jobs in the eurozone in October, thus boosting the region's unemployment rate to a record-high 11.7% from 11.6% in September, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.

Across the 27-country EU, 204,000 jobs were shed and the unemployment rate rose 0.1% month on month to 10.7%, Eurostat says. A year earlier, the unemployment rates in the eurozone and EU were 10.4% and 9.9%, respectively.

The jobless rate worsened in many of the eurozone's 17 member countries in October, including Italy (+0.3 points to 11.1%) and Spain (+0.4 points to 26.2%). Unemployment was unchanged in France (10.7%) and Germany (5.4%).

The agency estimates there were 18.7 million people seeking work in the eurozone and 25.9 million in the EU in October.