Unemployment rates in European Union continue to rise.

As per Eurostat - the seventeen country union's statistics office - reported that the unemployment rate rose to 12.2% in the month of April this year. This is up by 0.1% as compared to the preceding month. With this, the total has risen to 19.38 m. In October last year, this figure stood at 18 m. If the present pace continues, it's a matter of time before the count hits the 20 m mark. While this may be the total count of the EU, the country wise stats show how bad the situation is in certain countries. For instance, in Greece and Spain, unemployment rates stand at a high 25%. Digging deeper into the data, the situation is even worse. Nearly half the youth (aged 18 to 25) in Spain and Greece are unemployed. The same stat for Italy stands at 40%. Given these figures, country leaders have been sounding alarm bells over taking measures to improve the situation. But with interest rates close to zero, not leading to high er investments by corporate - given the slowing growth rates and uncertain future - decline in unemployment seems to be a very difficult task.