Britain, nearly 1.5 million people applied for unemployment benefit in March. This figure represents a more than 80 percent increase compared to one year previously.

In Spain, the official unemployment rate stands at 17.4 percent compared to 10.5 percent in May 2008. Unemployment has doubled over the same period in Ireland, while unemployment has trebled in the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in the space of one year.

In countries such as Germany and Austria, the growth in unemployment has been largely delayed by the widespread introduction of short-time working. In April 2009, 2 million workers were working short-time in Germany. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts a drastic rise in unemployment in Germany to over 5 million in the coming months.

The EU and allsince 2000.” In March 2009 the unemployment rate for under 25-year-olds was about 18.3 percent across Europe. In Spain, more than one third of this age group is without job. Increasing numbers of high school graduates are unable to find adequate work and are forced to take two or three cheap wage jobs in order to survive.

These averages statistics, however, fail to describe the full extent of the social misery, which prevails in large parts of Europe. If one examines the poverty in individual countries, individual regions and even individual cities, then an enormous geographical divide between rich and poor is evident. In every European country there are regions that are sinking into bitter poverty: southern Spain, southern Italy, East Germany, and large regions in all other countries.