The World Bank has expressed its concern over rising unemployment rates in several European Union (EU) member states.

According to the organisation's new EU10 Regular Economic Report, year-on-year economic growth within the EU's newest member states such as Hungary and the Czech Republic improved to a level of 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year in comparison to a deficit of -2.1 per cent in the same period of time at the end of 2009.

However, this increase has not as yet been reflected in these nations' labour sectors, the study added, as the amount of unemployed people without jobs in these countries increased to around ten per cent of their total population in May of this year - a figure which reflects a rise of 3.5 per cent since June 2008.

Kaspar Richter, senior economist in the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia region, commented: "The crisis made it much harder for workers who lose their job to return to employment."

Worst affected by a lack of available jobs is Latvia which had, according to Eurostat, an unemployment rate of 20 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Posted by Alex Donnell