Employment in the sixteen countries that share the euro increased on an annual basis for the first time in over two years during the last quarter of 2010, boosting hopes that the economic rebound will become more broad-based, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, the European Union reported that employment in the eurozone added 0.1% in the fourth quarter of last year from the third quarter, which marked a 0.3% year-over-year increase from the same period in 2009. The gain was the first such increase since the third quarter of 2008, although employment fell 0.5% in 2010 as a whole to 144.8 million, slowing from the 1.8% decrease during the previous year.
The data showed a divergence between leading economies in the region and debt-burdened countries on the periphery. Employment in Germany, France, and Italy rose 1%, 0.7%, and 0.3% year-over-year, respectively, while Spain and Portugal fell a respective 1.3% and 1.8% over that same period, and data for Greece and Ireland was not available but the trend has been strongly negative in those countries. A separate report from German think-tank ZEW reported that it’s economic expectations index for that country fell to 14.1 in March from 15.7 previously, halting a string of increases and falling short of forecasts.
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