Eurozone unemployment rate hits record high Earlier this year, the European Commission warned that "unacceptably high" unemployment threatens "grave social consequences" and this week, it told governments that they must focus on reforms to outdated labour and pension systems to revive the region. Source: Eurostat However, even if governments take on powerful unions to enact reforms, they will take time to bear fruit and lessen the impact of the eurozone's debt and banking crises that have been sapping confidence from households and businesses. Last week, Germany and France launched a 'New Deal' to tackle the mass youth unemployment gripping Europe, freeing up EU resources to pay for language courses and fund jobseekers' flights around the continent in search of work. In France, Europe's second-largest economy behind Germany, unemployment rose to a record in April while in Germany itself, the jobless rate stands at 5.4pc. With unemployment accelerating and the recession persisting, expectations are rising for the European Central Bank to revive the economy and go beyond another interest rate cut to consider a US-style quantitative easing programme. But the fact that consumer price inflation stood at 1.4pc in May - stubbornly below the ECB's 2pc target - underlines the scale of the challenge facing European leaders. "Even if the eurozone economy exits from recession later this year, the labour market is likely to remain in recession until next year," said Martin van Vliet of ING.