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Wednesday, January 9, 2013
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Eurozone gloom at jobless totals EU employment boss says a new divide is emerging between countries
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ECORD unemployment and struggling social welfare systems in southern Europe risk dividing the continent, the EU has warned as new figures showed joblessness across the eurozone hit a new high. Official data showed unemployment in the 17 countries that use the currency rose to 11.8 per cent in November, the highest since the euro was founded in 1999. The rate was up from 11.7 per cent in October and 10.6 per cent a year earlier. In the wider 27-nation EU unemployment broke the 26 million mark for the first time with the jobless rate increasing in 18 countries, falling in seven and remaining stable in Denmark and Hungary. Last year “has been another very bad year for Europe in terms of unemployment and the deteriorating social situation,” said Laszlo Andor, the EU’s Employment Commissioner. “Moreover, it is unlikely that Europe will see much socio-economic improvement in 2013,” he said. A closer look at the figures shows the rise in unemployment was greatest among those countries - mostly in southern Europe - where market concerns over excessive public debt have pushed governments to make the toughest savings. States have raised taxes and slashed spending - including by cutting wages and pensions, measures that hit the labour force in the pocket and reduce demand
in the economy. The single biggest increase in unemployment over the past year took place in Greece, where joblessness soared to 26 per cent in September, up 7.1 per cent over September 2011’s 18.9 per cent. But the highest overall rate in the EU was in Spain, where 26.6 per cent of the workforce was jobless in November, up 3.6 per cent from last year. In Cyprus unemployment increased substantially from 9.5 per cent in November 2011 to 14 per cent in November 2012 according to the Eurostat figures. The unemployment rate of 14 per cent in November of last year was a 0.2 per cent increase over October of the same year. By contrast, Austria posted the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, at 4.5 per cent. The rate in Luxembourg was 5.1 per cent, and the rate in Germany was 5.4 per cent. Britain had 7.8 per cent. Between November 2011 and November 2012, the unemployment rate for men increased from 10.4 per cent to 11.7 per cent in the eurozone and from 9.9 per cent to 10.8 per cent in the EU27. The female unemployment rate rose from 10.9 per cent to 11.8 per cent in the eurozone and from 10.1 per cent to 10.7 per cent in the EU27. In November 2012, almost 5.8 million young people under 25 were unemployed in the EU27, of whom almost 3.8 million were in the eurozone.
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People carry traditional dolls as they walk in the centre of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv during Christian Orthodox Christmas celebrations yesterday (AFP)
Positive spin on office problem: bored workers are more creative By Alan Jones BEING bored at work can have a positive effect because daydreaming can increase creativity, according to a new study. Research by an occupational psychologist showed a surprising flipside to being bored or distracted in the office. Having time to daydream at work, or during the daily commute, can spark new ideas, said Dr Sandi Mann of
the University of Central Lancashire, Britain. More than 150 adults were given various tasks to perform, including a boring job of simply copying numbers from a telephone directory, and a more interesting test of ideas for using a pair of polystyrene cups. Those who copied out the telephone numbers were more creative, the research revealed. Dr Mann said: “Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be
eliminated, but perhaps we should be embracing it in order to enhance our creativity. “We want to see what the practical implications of this finding are. Do people who are bored at work become more creative in other areas of their job, or do they go home and write novels?” The findings of the study were presented yesterday at the British Psychological Society’s annual occupational psychology conference in Chester.