European Unemployment

The NY Times reports:

Unemployment in the 17-nation euro zone climbed to 11.9 percent in January from 11.8 percent the previous month, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

For the 27 nations of the Union, the jobless rate in January stood at 10.8 percent, up from 10.7 percent in December. All of the figures were seasonally adjusted.

Even though the EU is not that major a trading partner for us anymore, their woes will impact us. If Europeans are unemployed they are not spending money on imported goods from China. If the Chinese economy doesn’t grow as quickly as previously that impacts us both directly and via Australia.

The official stats say:

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in nineteen Member States, fell in seven and
remained stable in Denmark. The largest decreases were observed in Estonia (11.1% to 9.9% between
December 2011 and December 2012), Latvia (15.5% to 14.4% between the fourth quarters of 2011 and 2012),
Romania (7.4% to 6.6%) and the United Kingdom (8.3% to 7.7% between November 2011 and November 2012).
The highest increases were registered in Greece (20.8% to 27.0% between November 2011 and November 2012),
Cyprus (9.9% to 14.7%), Portugal (14.7% to 17.6%) and Spain (23.6% to 26.2%).

The NZ unemployment rate is 6.9%. Too high, but better than most of Europe.