歐元區青年失業率達24.4% 創下歷史新高大綱
The crisis facing the younger generation across the Eurozone worsened last month as youth unemployment hit a new record high of 24.4% with under-25s in Spain, Italy and Portugal finding it harder to get jobs.
The grim news on on employment came as the Netherlands was stripped of its prized AAA credit rating despite the country's recent exit from a year-long recession.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday that weakening growth prospects showed the country would struggle to improve its financial stability and generate new jobs.
It said: "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the Netherlands' growth prospects are now weaker than we had previously anticipated, and the real GDP per capita trend growth rate is persistently lower than that of peers."
It cited weakening consumer demand, high levels of personal debt and falling house prices for keeping consumer spending and tax receipts low in the next few years. One in four Dutch homebuyers is in negative equity as a result of falling property values.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, said S&P's downgrade to AA+ was disappointing when the economy had returned to growth.
S&P's action leaves only three members of the eurozone with a top rating from all three agencies – Germany, Luxembourg and Finland.
The Eurozone jobless data showed Spain's youth unemployment rate has now increased to 57.4%, only marginally below Greece's August high of 58% - which remains the highest rate of youth unemployment for any country in the eurozone's history. Italy's youth unemployment rate rose to 41.2%, from 40.5% the previous month. In Portugal, it rose to 36.5% from 36.2%.
The startling figures from southern Europe contrast with rates in the north where Germany has a 7.8% youth unemployment rate and the Netherlands an 11.6% rate.
Italy's credit rating is perilously close to entering junk status and Rome is lobbying hard in Brussels for more time to cut the country's annual deficit. The coalition government headed by Enrico Letta said on Friday it would call a fresh confidence vote in parliament, despite winning a vote earlier in the week, to confirm his government's majority after the withdrawal of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party from the ruling coalition.
Letta said the vote would be held after his centre-left Democratic party elects a new leader on 8 December, and would be based on a new agenda for 2014 which would be discussed with coalition partners.
"The confidence vote will allow us to pass from defence into attack," said Letta, whose government is backed by the Democratic party, a centrist group Civic Choice and a centre-right group that broke away from Forza Italia.
Considering the chaos in Italian politics and the credit rating downgrades affecting some of the EU's traditional paymasters, France and the Netherlands in particular, there are still many analysts who fear for the eurozone's growth prospects over the next decade.
Youth unemployment also remains a scar that shows little sign of healing. While the adult unemployment rate fell across the eurozone from 12.2 to 12.1%, 3.6m under-25s are now unemployed, an increase of 15,000 on the previous month.據英國《衛報》報道，歐元區的青年人失業率在10月達到24.4%，創下歷史新高。年輕一代面臨的就業危機逾發惡化，特別是西班牙、意大利和葡萄牙的青年（25歲以下）找工作格外困難。
這則關於就業問題殘酷消息傳出之時，荷蘭剛剛從長達一年的經濟蕭條中有所恢復，卻未能保住“AAA”的信用評級。
根據評級組織標準普爾在11月29日發表的報告，荷蘭當前經濟增長前景越發疲軟，仍然面臨保持金融穩定和增加就業機會的艱鉅任務。
標準普爾說道：“荷蘭信用等級下調反映了我們的觀點，即荷蘭的經濟增長幅度低於我們之前的預期，而人均GDP的趨勢增長率也一直低於其他國家。”
標準普爾列舉了一些荷蘭經濟的現狀：消費需求持續低迷，個人負債率高居不下，爲了刺激消費而下調房價，未來幾年的稅收收入持續偏低。由於房價下跌，擁有房產的荷蘭人中有四分之一已處於負資產狀態。
荷蘭的財政大臣傑羅恩•迪塞布洛姆表示，荷蘭的經濟剛剛開始復甦，而“標準普爾”卻將荷蘭降級爲“AA+”，這無疑令人失望。
標準普爾的這個動作讓歐元區只有三個國家仍擁有標普最高的AAA評級，分別是德國、盧森堡和芬蘭。
歐元區失業數據顯示，西班牙的青年失業率增長最快，現已達到57.4%，僅比希臘在8月創下的最高紀錄58%低0.6個百分點。意大利的青年失業率由10月的40.5%增長至41.2%，葡萄牙則由36.2% 增長至 36.5%。
與南歐國家驚人的高失業率相比，北部國家的情況較爲樂觀，德國和荷蘭的青年失業率分別只有7.8%和11.6%。
意大利的信用評級已降到了難堪的地步了。意大利政府正在努力地向歐盟總部爭取時間來解決財政赤字問題。11月26日意大利聯合政府總理萊塔在針對2014年預算案的信任投票中獲勝，這令其所領導的聯合政府在經歷了前總理貝盧斯科尼的意大利力量黨退出的打擊後，得到一定程度的穩定。儘管如此，萊塔領導的新聯合政府還是在29日宣佈，即將發起新一輪的信任投票。
萊塔稱，投票將在12月8日在他所在的中左翼民主黨選出一位新黨首之後進行。投票將會依照與其他聯合政府成員商定的2014年日程規劃來進行。
萊塔說，“信任投票將使我們的處境轉守爲攻。”萊塔政府的主要支持者是民主黨、中間派聯盟Civic Choice，以及一個從意大利力量黨分離出來的中右翼組織。
鑑於意大利政治上的混亂與標普評級的下降會影響到一些歐盟的傳統出資國，尤其是法國和荷蘭，仍有很多分析員對歐元區未來10年的經濟發展前景感到擔憂。
青年失業問題就像一道不會癒合的傷疤。歐元區的成年人失業率由12.2%下降到 12.1%，目前約有360萬25歲以下的青年處於失業狀態，這一數據比10月多出1.5萬。
