“Abysmal.” That’s the word one reporter is using to describe the newly released numbers for Eurozone unemployment and inflation. The Eurozone (which includes 17 nations) is seeing miserable numbers:

The ranks of the jobless swelled by 60,000 to a record 19.45 million, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. Though the unemployment rate remained steady at 12.2 percent, the previous month was revised up from 12 percent.

Youth unemployment, which has been particularly high, rose .1 percent as well. That means Greece and Spain, the two nations with the worst youth unemployment, both remain above 55 percent.

Despite officials attempts to stimulate the economy, a lack of confidence among consumers and businesses continues to stall the European economic outlook.

“Businesses are not yet confident enough about the growth outlook to switch to creating jobs,” Marie Diron, an economist who advises the consulting firm Ernst & Young, said in an email.

The e as a disappointment after recent data fed hopes that the euro zone was slowly emerging from a downturn that effectively began in 2009. Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the euro zone debt crisis, returned to growth in the third quarter after a recession that lasted more than two years.

Read “Eurozone Unemployment Reaches New Record High” at .

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