News

The European economic outlook remains unsure with the current recession set to persist and give way to modest growth in 2014. The ECB revised its 2013 growth forecasts downwards to -0.6%, and raised those for 2014 to +1.1%.



Following six quarters of negative or no growth, the IMF placed the euro zone/EU in the slow lane of its global ‘three-speed recovery’ scenario. Eurofound, in its recently issued European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) Quarterly for the period April-June 2013, highlight that EU unemployment in May 2013 hit its highest level ever or 11%, translating into over 26.5 million people out of work. Additionally, Eurofound point out the widening gap between the euro zone unemployment rate and the average OECD rate since the onset of the crisis as well as increased divergence within Europe.



The ERM identifies persistent and high levels of restructuring activities across Europe with more jobs lost than created. It reports on 347 cases of restructuring between 1 April and 30 June 2013. The identified cases announced 70,608 job losses and 45,968 job gains. Significant restructuring activity was experienced in Information and Communication Services, Retail, and Financial and Insurance activities whilst Manufacturing experienced the most restructuring activity. The largest single case of job loss recorded in the respective quarter is the closure of Greek public television and radio broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), which will result in 2,902 job losses.



The ERM can be accessed in the related files tab.