Europe Unemployment Rate Increases - 10.1% in April

From Eurostat:

The euro area1 (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.1% in April 2010, compared with 10.0% in March. It was 9.2% in April 2009. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.7% in April 2010, unchanged compared with March. It was 8.7% in April 2009.
Eurostat estimates that 23.311 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.860 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in April 2010. Compared with March 2010, the number of persons unemployed increased by 25 000 in both the EU27 and the euro area. Compared with April 2009, unemployment went up by 2.400 million in the EU27 and by 1.275 million in the euro area.

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Click on Graph to Enlarge

Why the IMF would demand labor be squeezed even further is beyond me, since decreased tax revenues is one of the reasons cited for Europe's woes. How correlated the unemployment rate is to nation's with large real estate bubbles and financial sectors? From NuWire Investor:

The worst markets were Ireland, Spain, Greece, most central and eastern European countries. The Baltic States were hit particularly hard. There, prices declines ranged from 27% to 53% in 2009. Together, those countries form a geographic “unlucky horseshoe around the edges of Europe.”

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