Eurozone unemployment reaches new high 8 January 2013 Last updated at 11:43 The unemployment rate across the eurozone hit a new all-time high of 11.8% in November, official figures have shown. This is a slight rise on 11.7% for the 17-nation region in October. The rate for the European Union as a whole in November was unchanged at 10.7%. Spain, which is mired in deep recession, again recorded the highest unemployment rate, coming in at 26.6%. More than 26 million people are now unemployed across the EU. For the eurozone, the number of people without work reached 18.8 million said Eurostat, the official European statistics agency said. Barroso confidence Greece had the second-highest unemployment rate in November, at 20%. The youth unemployment rate was 24.4% in the eurozone, and 23.7% in the wider European Union. More recent figures from Spain's Labour Ministry suggest that the number of people registered as out of work in the country - a narrower measure than the Eurostat figures - fell in December. The general trend however remains upwards and it makes it even harder for the governments concerned to collect the taxes they need to stabilise their debts The ministry said earlier this month that the number of people registered as unemployed fell in December by 41,023 or 0.8%. The eurozone and wider European Union economies have struggled in recent years as government measures to reduce sovereign debt levels have impacted on economic growth. However, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday that he believed the worst was over. BBC Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker said: "The biggest rises, in percentage terms, were in countries at the centre of the eurozone financial crisis - Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal. One striking exception to that pattern was the Republic of Ireland where unemployment fell. The general trend however remains upwards and it makes it even harder for the governments concerned to collect the taxes they need to stabilise their debts. The record low for the eurozone unemployment rate was 7.2%, which was recorded in February 2008, before the financial crisis that first gripped the banking sector spread to the real economy. The historic low for the eurozone youth unemployment rate was 15% in March 2008.