Jobless total hits record 11.6%

Eurostat said today that 18.49 million people were out of work in the 17-member eurozone - and it's closer to 25 million across the whole EU.

That means another 146,000 Europeans lost their jobs in a single month as the continent's leaders stick doggedly to a sweeping attack on the public sector under the guise of "austerity" to reduce debt.

Five eurozone countries - Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Cyprus - are already in recession and the bloc as a whole expects to be in recession by November.

Unemployment was highest in Spain and Greece, at 25.8 and 25.1 per cent, and lowest in Austria at 4.4 per cent.

The European Trade Union Confederation has called for a continent-wide day of action against austerity on November 14,

Unions in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal have indicated that they will hold strikes on the day.

The attack on spending and welfare was "dragging Europe down into economic stagnation and recession, resulting in stunted growth and increased unemployment," Italian trade union federation CGIL stated.

But it stopped short of rejecting the EU, calling for a "European social pact."

But the European Central Bank said there were some positives, such as a 0.1 per cent drop in inflation. Central Bank president Mario Draghi told Der Spiegel last week that inflation was a deeply personal issue for him as it was why his family's assets had reduced in value in the 1980s.