Data released on Monday show the global recession has claimed 1.22 million jobs across the 16-nation eurozone in the first quarter of 2009. The figures, published by the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, represent the biggest quarterly jump in job losses since record-keeping began in 1995. Some 526,000 jobs were cut in the last quarter of 2008, reducing the total number of those in work across the zone to 146.2 million. It is the third consecutive quarter in which the eurozone shed more jobs than it created, and Howard Archer, economist with IHS Global Insight, says the trend looks set to continue. "Latest data and survey evidence point to serious weakness in eurozone labor markets in the second quarter," he says.
The figures, published by the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, represent the biggest quarterly jump in job losses since record-keeping began in 1995. Some 526,000 jobs were cut in the last quarter of 2008, reducing the total number of those in work across the zone to 146.2 million.
It is the third consecutive quarter in which the eurozone shed more jobs than it created, and Howard Archer, economist with IHS Global Insight, says the trend looks set to continue.
"Latest data and survey evidence point to serious weakness in eurozone labor markets in the second quarter," he says.
