Eurozone unemployment hits record highs

Unemployment in the eurozone has reached new highs, with European Union (EU) agency Eurostat revealing the seasonally-adjusted rate shows some 123,000 people lost their jobs at the beginning of summer.

This brings the total to nearly 18 million - which is some two million more than last year.

Furthermore, this is the 14th consecutive monthly increase and analysts have noted a cumulative increase of 2.45 people since the series began in April 2011.

The Federal Labour Agency in Germany said unadjusted unemployment also increased sharply in July, with the region's largest economy's total number of jobless people climbing by 66,800 month-on-month to 2.8 million.

Eurostat estimates 25 million men and women are unemployed across the 27-member EU state.

This news has not helped the already depressed eurozone stock benchmarks and at 15:30 BST the French Cac 40 was down 0.7 per cent to an index value of 3298.2 points and the German Dax was lower at 6767.7 points.

Beleaguered Spain, which has the highest unemployment in the region at nearly 25 per cent saw its Ibex index lose more than one per cent, falling to 6728.5 points.