Unemployment in the eurozone has surged to a fresh record high, while inflation has fallen to a three-year low, boosting expectations that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates.

Unemployment in the 17 countries using the euro hit 12.1% in March, up from February's 12%, according to official figures from Eurostat.

In total, 19.2m people are now out of work in the region.

Separate Eurostat data showed that inflation slowed to 1.2% in April.

Greece and Spain recorded the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone, at 27.2% and 26.7% respectively, while Austria, at 4.7%, and Germany, at 5.4%, had the lowest rates.

Youth employment, defined as those under 25, hit 3.6 million in the eurozone. In Greece, 59.1% of under-25s were unemployed as of the end of January, while in Spain, 55.9% were unemployed. bbc.co.uk

from the BBC …Spain's industrial output falls further;

The rate of decline in industrial output in Spain increased in February, according to official figures.

Output dropped by 6.5% compared with the same month a year earlier. It followed a 4.9% decline in January.

Industrial production in the country has been falling constantly since August 2011.

Spain, which is the fourth biggest eurozone economy, has been mired in recession since the second half of 2011.

The country has one of the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone - at about 26%. It is suffering from a troubled banking sector, excessive household and company debts, and tough government austerity measures.

The majority of British children will soon be growing up in families which are struggling “below the breadline” because of welfare cuts, tax rises and wage freezes, the Government is warned today.

Within two years, almost 7.1m of the nation’s 13m youngsters will be in homes with incomes judged to be less than the minimum necessary for a decent standard of living, according to a new report.

The figures, which emerged a week ahead of George Osborne’s Budget, suggest that an unwanted legacy of the Coalition’s squeeze on spending will be to leave more children living close to poverty…

…the number of under-18s living in households below minimum income standards would increase by 690,000 between 2010 and 2015. The definitions of acceptable living standards are drawn up by the respected charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation...

“Austerity is OK if you are rich. It’s OK if you are one of the 13,000 millionaires in this country because austerity means you get richer. That’s because if you are rich, you’re in line for an extra £100,000 tax break, taken from the pockets of the poor.”

independent.co.uk

Amazon even had a quote from David Cameron, the prime minister, in its September press release. “This is great news, not only for those individuals who will find work, but for the UK economy,” he said.....

They also walk past a life-sized cardboard image of a cheery blonde woman in an orange vest. “This is the best job I have ever had!” says a speech bubble near her head.....

It seemed like this was the town’s chance to reinvent itself after decades of economic decline. But as they have had a taste of its “jobs of the future”, their excitement has died down.....

“You’re sort of like a robot, but in human form,” said the Amazon manager. “It’s human automation, if you like.” ....

What did the people of Rugeley make of all this? For many, it has been a culture shock. “The feedback we’re getting is it’s like being in a slave camp,”

“We use a bunch of Japanese guys, they are not consultants, they are insultants, they are really not nice … They’re samurais, the real last samurais, the guys from the Toyota plants.” ....

“It’s absolutely fantastic news for Rugeley,” the release from Aidan Burley, the area’s member of parliament, said. “People are crying out to get back into work.”

Walking 7-15 miles a day in poorly fitting, blister provoking boots , controlled by a sat-nav computer, 1p per hour above minimum wage, Fantastic news.

ft.com

bbc.co.uk

Italy's gaffe-prone former premier Silvio Berlusconi has stoked controversy by praising Benito Mussolini on Holocaust Memorial Day - despite Il Duce's anti-Jewish laws.

Mussolini had been wrong to pass anti-Jewish laws but had otherwise been a good leader, said Mr Berlusconi.

He was speaking at a Milan ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

He has not ruled out another stint as PM if his party wins polls next month.

His People of Freedom (PDL) party is hoping to form a centre-right coalition government with another party after elections on 24-25 February, but have not named a candidate for prime minister.

The media tycoon stepped down from a third term as prime minister in November 2011, when he was replaced by the technocrat Mario Monti.

"Obviously the government of [Mussolini's] time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it," said Mr Berlusconi, who heads a coalition that includes groups with fascist roots.

"The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well," he added, referring to the 1938 laws that barred Jews from Italy's universities and many professions.

UK borrowing is likely to be £64bn higher in 2014-15 than forecast in 2010, according to a closely watched report.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says a weak economy will mean the government has to borrow more than it forecast, unless it imposes tax rises and further spending cuts.

Public service spending could fall by a third by 2018, the IFS said.

The cuts could also lead to the loss of about 1.2 million public sector jobs.

Paul Johnson, IFS director, said the chancellor was "allowing borrowing to increases substantially in this Parliament... whilst promising another dramatic dose of public spending cuts in the next Parliament".

As a result, currently "protected" departments, such as health, education, and overseas aid, could also find themselves facing budget cuts after the next general election.

bbc.co.uk

Spain unemployment rate hit a record: youth rate at 55%

Spain's unemployment rate is twice the EU average. Spain's unemployment rate has hit a modern day record, and joblessness among young people has topped 55%.

Official data showed that the jobless rate in the last three months of 2012 rose 1% to 26%, or 5.97 million people. The figure, the highest since the mid-1970s, follows Spain's prolonged recession and deep spending cuts.

The impact has been acute for 16 to 24-year-olds, who saw the rate in the last quarter of 2012 surge to 55.13% from 52.34% in the previous three months.

Private schools which educate around 7% of all pupils, he said, continue to have a "stranglehold" on the country's top jobs.

The report found the judiciary remains "solidly and socially elitist", with 43% of barristers attending a fee paying secondary school and almost one third studying at Oxbridge.

Of the country's top journalists, 54% were privately educated with one third graduating from Oxbridge.

Privately educated MPs comprised 30% of the total in 1997, but after the 2010 election now comprise 35%, with just 13 private schools providing 10% of all Members of Parliament.

About 62% of members of the House of Lords, were privately educated, with 43% of the total having attended just 12 private schools.

independent.co.uk

A 21-year-old black man records his encounter with police on his mobile phone during his arrest the day after the London riots begin. The recording captures his exchange with two officers after he is handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

Scotland Yard is facing a racism scandal after a black man used his mobile phone to record police officers subjecting him to a tirade of abuse in which he was told: "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger".

guardian.co.uk

Unemployment could be as high as 6.3 million in the UK if a different counting measure was used, highlighting the true scale of joblessness, according to a new report.

The TUC said the higher figure - more than twice the official total - was revealed using an American measure, which includes people in part-time jobs because they cannot find full-time work and recent redundancies.

money.uk.msn.com

Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in the Yanam (Andra Pradesh) killed their boss, K. C. Chandrashekhar. They raided his home and beat him with led pipes. This happened after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police. Police was called by management to attack a workers' picket line. Workers ask for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October.

forbes.com

Until at least the middle of the next decade, global growth is likely to slow to approximately 3 percent per year on average–a rate somewhat below the average of the last two decades. A recovery in advanced economies will be more than offset by a gradual slowdown in emerging ones as they mature, with the net result that global growth will slow. But the biggest risk ahead for the global economy is not this slower overall growth in output but a slowdown in average output per capita, which will determine how fast living standards can be supported and raised.

conference-board.org

The World Bank’s forecasts of world economic growth (Jan 2012) has been “significantly downgraded” from its previous assessment six months ago. It now expected the global economy to expand by only 2.5 percent and 3.1 percent in 2012 and 2013, compared to the previous prediction of 3.6 percent for both years. Any rate below 3 percent is generally considered to be a recession for the world economy as a whole. Europe was now in a recession and growth in high-income countries was expected to be only 1.4 percent. Even these weak results may not be achieved.

ROME (AP) — Protesters in Rome smashed shop windows and torched cars as violence broke out during a demonstration in the Italian capital, part of worldwide protests against corporate greed and austerity measures.

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests that began in Canada and spread to cities across the U.S. moved Saturday to Asia and Europe, linking up with anti-austerity demonstrations that have raged across the debt-ridden continent for months.

Black smoke billowed into the air in downtown Rome as a small group of violent protesters broke away from the main demonstration. They smashed car windows, set at least two vehicles on fire and assaulted two news crews of Sky Italia, the TV reported. Others burned Italian and EU flags

The UK's economy will not grow as quickly as previously thought this year and may not fully recover for another three years, the Bank of England has said.

GDP is set to grow by around 1.4% in 2011, the Bank said in its quarterly inflation report, down from its estimate of around 1.8% in May.

Growth will remain sluggish in the near term, reflecting the continued squeeze on household incomes, but the Bank said it is likely to be above normal levels by 2014.... "The outlook for growth in the world economy has deteriorated and, largely as a consequence, near-term growth prospects at home are somewhat weaker," Sir Mervyn added.

news.uk.msn.com