DAVID McHUGH, AP Business Writers
PAUL WISEMAN, AP Business Writers
BRUSSELS – Irene Fernandez lost her job with Spain’s postal service five months ago, a victim of government spending cuts. Since then, she’s been getting by on spending money from her mother and the $530 a month she earns grooming dogs for neighbors. Fernandez, 24, has had one job interview.
“This year has been the toughest,” she says. “I am beginning to realize that things are going to be a lot tougher for me than for my mother’s generation.”
Europe’s economic crisis is hitting young people like Fernandez the hardest. The youth unemployment rate is nearly 53 percent in Greece, 51.5 percent in Spain and 35 percent in Italy. In the 17 countries that use the euro currency, youth unemployment is a record 22 percent, twice the eurozone’s overall unemployment rate of 11 percent, which is itself the highest since the euro was created in 1999.