Eurozone unemployment figures hit a new high

 

This post has been corrected. See bottom for details.

LONDON — Europe’s economic gloom deepened Wednesday on the back of news that unemployment in the 17-nation Eurozone hit another record high in September as the region’s debt crisis continued to sap the confidence of business owners, investors and consumers alike.

About 18.5 million people were out of work in the Eurozone in September, adding up to a jobless rate of 11.6%. That figure exceeds August’s record of 11.5% and follows the worrisome trend of the past half-year, during which unemployment has either remained static or worsened with each successive month.

The grim picture painted by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency, comes as the continent’s debt crisis sits on the cusp of entering its fourth year with no full resolution in sight. Lawmakers in Greece, where the crisis began, are still grappling with another punishing round of austerity cuts demanded by international lenders, while Spain is keeping markets on tenterhooks over whether it will become the latest country to seek a bailout from its European partners.

According to Eurostat, there were 2.2 million more people out of work in September than a year ago in the 17 nations that share the euro currency. Since then, a number of those economies have tumbled back into recession, government debt ratios have risen, commercial lending has dwindled and investors have taken flight.

Eurozone unemployment rate remains at record high [Map]

Unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro remained at 11% last month, the highest it has been since the currency was introduced, according to new data released by the European Union.

More than 17.4 million people in the region were out of work last month, a troubling increase as the Eurozone grapples with how to muscle out of its debt crisis.The newly released figures testify to the continued pain across Europe as it struggles with competing demands to rein in spending and nurture growth. 

That pain is far worse in some countries than others: Spain suffered a 24% joblessness rate, the worst in the European Union. A banking crisis there has sunk stock prices and alarmed investors fearful of a run on Spanish banks. Borrowing rates have soared to precarious heights.

Greece was close behind with nearly 22% unemployment, while Latvia and Portugal tied around 15%. (Greek figures date to February.) The lowest rates were in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, where unemployment rates ranged from roughly 4% to more than 5%.

Despite the grim numbers, there were some hopeful signs for the European Union. Though the unemployment rate grew in 15 EU nations, it fell at least marginally in 12 others, including Ireland, where voters signed off on a European treaty to limit government spending despite opponents' frustration with austerity cuts.

This map spotlights the EU nations suffering the highest unemployment rates, shaded in orange, and those with the lowest, tinted in blue:

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-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Dutch Prince Friso seriously brain-damaged after skiing accident

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REPORTING FROM LONDON -- Dutch Prince Johan Friso suffered irreversible brain damage after being buried in an avalanche while skiing in the Austrian Alps a week ago and may never regain consciousness, doctors said Friday.

The 43-year-old prince, second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, was skiing with friends in the Voralberg region of Austria when the avalanche struck. He lay trapped under snow for around 15 minutes before being rescued and airlifted to a nearby hospital last week.

"Because he was under the snow for such a long time, his brain did not get enough oxygen," Dr. Wolfgang Koller, head of the trauma unit at Innsbruck University Hospital, told a news conference Friday.

"We can’t tell for certain if Prince Friso will wake up from his unconscious state," Koller said.

After the accident, Prince Friso suffered a 50-minute cardiac arrest while doctors tried to resuscitate him, hoping that a state of hypothermia would protect him from brain damage.  

"Fifty minutes of resuscitation is a very long time, you could even say too long, but we hoped the hypothermia the patient had would protect him from brain damage," Koller said. "Unfortunately, this didn’t happen."

Q & A: How a fancy Austrian ball stirred worry about neo-Nazis

In Austria, protesters condemned a fancy ball that has been linked to extremists and neo-Nazis. The ball happens annually, but it caused extra uproar last week because it dovetailed with worldwide commemorations of the Holocaust. The event has also struck a nerve as the Freedom Party, a radical right party that has won support from Islamophobes and Holocaust deniers, gains popularity.

To understand this event and why it kicked up so much controversy in Austria, we turned to Jean-Yves Camus, a political analyst who studies extremism with the Paris think tank Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques.

A fancy European ball normally conjures up visions of chandeliers and waltzes. How did this ball become linked to neo-Nazis in Austria? Is it really linked to them?

This ball does include chandeliers and waltzes in the magnificent Vienna castle that once was the winter residence of the imperial family. But there is a political flavor to the event, as many of the student fraternities in Austria were founded in the 19th century as a vehicle for pan-German nationalism, a tradition they still hold today. [Pan-Germanism is the idea that all people who speak German should be united politically. It was a key element of Nazism.]

True, some of those fraternities are faithful to democracy and do not ban the Jews from membership: Zionist leader Theodor Herzl himself belonged to one of them. German and Austrian burschenschaften [fraternities], however, are not the mere equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa. The fraternity that hosted the ball is clearly linked to the most radical wing of the Freedom Party.

AUSTRIA: Lawmakers approve expanded bailout fund

 
REPORTING FROM LONDON -– After fierce debate, lawmakers in Austria gave the green light Friday to a beefed-up rescue fund for Europe’s debt-ridden countries, a move seen as imperative to fighting the crisis over the euro.

The vote in Vienna came a day after Germany overwhelmingly backed the plan and two days after the Finnish parliament ratified it. In all three nations, government leaders have had to battle public hostility toward extending more aid to neighbors such as Greece and Portugal, which have required international bailouts to pay their bills after years of overspending.

A handful of countries within the Eurozone have yet to vote on the measure, which requires the approval of all 17 national parliaments to go into effect. The plan would also give the fund expanded powers to recapitalize banks and buy the bonds of countries in financial straits.

Opposition to strengthening the $600-billion bailout fund was vociferous inside the Austrian parliament, where right-wing parties denounced it as a reward for fiscally reckless countries.

At one point, debate had to be suspended because heckling lawmakers drowned out the Austrian finance minister as she tried to address the chamber, news reports said. Photos also showed some lawmakers holding up a banner demanding a “referendum now” on the bailout fund and declaring that Austria had “paid enough” to help troubled Eurozone nations.

Still, the final vote was a comfortable win for the government.

Attention now turns to the Netherlands, which is expected to take up the measure next week, and Slovakia, where a vote is due later in October and where there are worrisome signs that lawmakers may torpedo the plan.

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Photo: Members of the Austrian Parliament vote on the bailout fund. Credit: Herwig Prammer, Reuters

-- Henry Chu