EU Has Lost Six Million Jobs Since Crisis Began

One million in the last six months, alone

European Union economies have shed almost six million jobs since the global economic crisis struck in 2008, the International Labour Organisation said Monday.

In a report on the European labour market, the UN agency said the employment rate across the 27-nation EU stood at 57.6 percent in 2012, down 1.6 percentage points on 2008.

"This means that there is still a deficit of 5.9 million jobs to restore employment rates to their pre-crisis levels," the ILO said.

A million jobs have been lost in the past six months alone, it noted.