Europe’s unemployment crisis is much worse than we thought . Vast army of available workers means millions will be jobless for years.

Marketwatch reports:

Unemployment is running at more than 24% unemployment in Greece. It is above 20% in Spain, and in France and Italy it is well above 10%, and has been stuck at those levels for many years. Given those terrible numbers, you might think that the eurozone’s jobless crisis couldn’t be any more crushing.

But unfortunately you’d be wrong. In fact it is even worse than most people realize.

Why? Because the official statistics only capture people who are actively looking for work. There are millions more who would be working — if the economy were capable of generating jobs. Eurostat has just revealed statistics that show a hidden army of underemployed and discouraged workers, who would be putting in more hours if it were possible.


That matters. Official unemployment data is just one measure of the slack in an economy. What the figures reveal is how dramatically most of the eurozone is failing to create enough work for its people, and how futile even the herculean efforts of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to stimulate demand are likely to prove — since even if demand does pick up slightly, more people will simply emerge to take whatever jobs are created.

The grand failure of Keynesian economics.