Eurozone unemployment holds steady at 11.5%

Eurozone unemployment held steady at 11.5% in October, Eurostat announced on Friday.

The figure had been widely expected by analysts.

Although the rate remained unchanged, the region's number of unemployed actually rose by 60,000 in October, marking a second successive increase as improvements in the labour market show signs of stalling.

"Unemployment was still 733,000 below its June 2013 peak, but at the current annual pace of decline of a bit more than 500,000, it would take more than a decade to reach pre-crisis levels," Berenberg's Christian Schultz explained.

"The unemployment rate, which was stable at 11.5% in October, continues to hide huge divergences between Germany at 4.9% and Greece at 25.9% (August). Youth unemployment, which increased by 13,000 in October, also continues to differ wildly, from 7.7% in Germany to 53.8% in Spain, although low activity rates in the cohort aged below 25% distort the picture."