Europe’s five worst unemployment black spots, all in Spain

STATISTICS that were published this week by Eurostat, the European Commission agency, spell out the drastic situation surrounding employment in Spain.

In a breakdown of unemployment rates by region across Europe, the five Spanish regions of Andalucia, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha occupied the highest five positions on the list. Topping them all with 34.8 per cent unemployment was Andalucia. 

Of the 272 European regions involved in the survey, there was no other country that faired as badly. Other figures showed that Spain’s national unemployment rate was 24.4 per cent, which is more than twice the Eurozone average of 11.3 per cent.

However, one promising sign was that the national unemployment rate fell for the first time in seven years, from 26 per cent.

In stark contrast, the German region of upper Bavaria tied with Prague in the Czech Republic in recording the lowest unemployment rates, at 2.5 per cent.