Brussels - Unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high in September with nearly 150 000 more jobs lost as the debt crisis continued to undermine an economy slumping into recession, official data showed on Wednesday.
The 17-state eurozone had a jobless rate of 11.6% in September, up from 11.5% in August, with the numbers out of work rising to 18.49 million from 18.34 million, the Eurostat data agency said.
The highest unemployment rate was recorded again in Spain, where 25.8% of adults are out of work, with Austria posting the lowest rate of 4.4% and benchmark Germany and the Netherlands each on 5.4%.
Across the 27-state European Union single market of half a billion consumers, 25.75 million men and women were out of work.