Eurozone unemployment hit a fresh record of 11.8 per cent in November, official statistics showed on Tuesday, highlighting the dire state of the bloc’s economy in spite of hopes for a gradual recovery this year.

Across all 27 members of the EU, more than 26m people were out of work in November, or 10.7 per cent of the workforce, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for both the eurozone and the wider EU jumped significantly from a year earlier, when they were 10.6 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

The crisis-hit countries of Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal saw the biggest increases in unemployment compared with a year earlier. Youth unemployment also rose further, hitting roughly 24 per cent both in the euro area and the EU.