by Calculated Risk on 7/02/2012 09:04:00 AM

From Eurostat: Euro area unemployment rate at 11.1%

The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.1% in May 2012, compared with 11.0% in April. It was 10.0% in May 2011. The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.3% in May 2012, compared with 10.2% in April4. It was 9.5% in May 2011.

Eurostat estimates that 24.868 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 17.561 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in May 2012.

From the WSJ: Euro-Zone Data Show No Sign of Improvement

Activity at euro-zone factories continued to fall sharply in June, while the currency area's unemployment rate rose to a record high in May ...

In a particularly worrying sign for the currency bloc's economy, German manufacturing activity fell at its fastest rate in three years—the latest evidence that Europe's biggest national economy is braking ... The final reading of the manufacturing purchasing managers' index was 45.1 in June [below 50 is contraction]

It is no surprise that Germany's export economy is starting to feel the impact of the eurozone recession. The "good" news is Spanish 10-year bond yields are down to 6.27%, and Italian yields are down to 5.71%.

And the ECB is expected to cut rates on Thursday.