Euro-Area Unemployment Highest on Record

The 11.2 percent unemployment rate is the highest since 1995.

The jobless rate in the euro area reached the highest on record as the festering debt crisis and deepening economic slump prompted companies to cut jobs.

Unemployment in the economy of the 17 nations using the euro reached a revised 11.2 percent in May and held at that level in June, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That's the highest since the data series started in 1995. In Germany, unemployment climbed for a fourth straight month in July, a separate report showed.