EU / Government books are closer to being balanced, but mass unemployment seems to be there to stay

Most government books are closer to being balanced. Budget deficits will shrink below the 3 percent limit in the Stability and Growth Pact, while the commission estimates that the eurozone will run a current account surplus of over 2 percent in 2014.

The commission also expects Spain to run a current account surplus in 2013. Greece, too, is expected to run a surplus in either 2013 or 2014. The South Mediterranean patient is undoubtedly getting leaner, and this certainly augurs well for Europe’s competitiveness in the future.

However, while the eurozone appears to be moving away from a crisis fuelled by deficit and debt, mass unemployment seems to be here to stay.

The headline rate of 11.7 percent unemployment across the eurozone is bad enough, but it is the sharp rise in long-term joblessness that is most concerning. Forty five percent of the EU’s unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, and in eight countries this figure rises to over one in two.

In Spain, Greece and Portugal, where the unemployment rate is above 15 percent and youth unemployment sits close to one in two, millions of Europeans risk being locked out of the labour market for good.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via EUobserver.com / Economic Affairs / Unemployment now the main problem in eurozone.