Britain and France record highest June job cuts
Job losses across the European Union continue to outnumber job gains, with the highest number of announced lay-offs recorded in June in France and Britain, a fresh EU report showed.
The situation in the labour market in the 27-member bloc keeps deteriorating, according to a monthly monitor conducted by the European Commission and published on Friday (10 July).
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The report points out that between September 2008 and June of this year, some 640,000 jobs disappeared while 219,000 posts were created. Last month alone there were 87 cases of restructuring-related job losses, which led to 50,000 workers being put out of work.
France with 19,625 announced lay-offs and Britain with 11,528 jobs to go, topped the June list of EU countries with the highest number of restructuring cases in the labour market, followed by the Czech Republic (3,070), Poland (2,310), Germany (1,960) and (1,950).
Manufacturing and education were among the sectors most affected by lay-offs last month, accounting for almost two-thirds of announced job losses, 33,000 out of a total of 50,000.
While manufacturing has proven to be the most damaged sector – almost 340,000 jobs have been lost since last September, half of the total job losses – the June statistics in education result from plans by the French education ministry to next year not refill the some 16,000 posts of departing staff.
Another area reporting significant job cuts last month was financial services with 8,000 jobs lost, including over 4,500 posts in the UK's Lloyds Banking Group.
Over a longer period, the retail sector has registered the most large-scale closures and lay-offs, with companies such as the UK's Woolworths and Stylo as well as Germany's Arcandor most indicative of the sector's difficulties.
Despite the new figures however, the highest unemployment rates continue to be recorded in Spain (18.7%), Latvia (16.3%) and Estonia (15.6%), according to the latest figures by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office.
On a slightly more positive note, some 10,000 jobs were announced in June, with 8,000 in the manufacturing sector, most significantly in Polish shipyards at Szczeczin (3,000 jobs) and Gdynia (2,000 jobs) and in the Czech Republic's Kutna Hora (1,000 jobs).
Brussels' report claims that although unemployment continues to rise across Europe and the labour market outlook for the coming months remains bleak, "there are increasing signs that the pace of deterioration is moderating."