BAD TO WORSE: Unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro hit a record 11.9 percent during January. Nearly 19 million people were unemployed as the number of jobless rose by 200,000.
NO PROSPECTS: Perhaps more troubling is the unemployment rate for young people, now at 24.2 percent. That raises the risk of removing an entire generation from the labor force.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?: Last week, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, forecast that that the unemployment rate was likely to rise further this year and average around 12.2 percent in 2013.
