Balearic unemployment is double the European Union average

The rate of unemployment in the Balearics last year was  20 percent,  double the European Union average which was 10.1 percent, according a report released by Eurostat yesterday.
However, the Balearics, which has witnessed a steady decline in the number of people out of work,  did not have the highest rate of unemployment inSpain.
The most people out of work were in Andalusia where the rate of unemployment was 34.8 percent, followed by the Canary Islands (32.4%) and then the North African enclave of Ceuta (31.9) percent. The Balearics were in fact one of 13 Spanish region where the rate of unemployment was above the European average.
Apart from Prague, the country with the lowest regional rate of unemployment was Germany where unemployment rates averaged out at around the 2.5 percent mark.
Germany also posted the lowest rate of youth unemployment in the European Union while  a number of regions  in Austria also faired well.
But, while the Balearics, over all, may be performing better than many other regions of Spain, youth unemployment is still around 50 percent, as reported yesterday, second only to Greece in the European  Union, although  some regions of Italy last year  began  reporting sharp increases in the number of people aged under 25 being out of work. Youth unemployment has become one of the European Union’s primary concerns and is going to be an area the new Balearic government is going to have to address after the elections.