Euro zone joblessness risks “economic disaster”

President Barack Obama has one thing to be thankful for regarding the unemployment rate in the U.S.: at least it’s not as high as Europe’s. Another 34,000 people became jobless in August, which pushed the unemployment rate in the EU’s 17-country bloc to 11.4 percent, or 18.2 million people. That figure is close to 25.5 million people out of work in the larger 27-nation EU. Hit particularly hardest are workers 18 to 25 years in age with a record 22.7 percent unemployed.