Jobless figures will reveal two-speed eurozone

Eurozone jobless numbers this week may lay bare a fault line scarring the region’s recovery, as evidence of Germany’s employment muscle contrasts with the political quagmire destroying work in Italy.

While the currency bloc’s longest-ever recession has ended, unemployment held at 12% September, according to the median of 36 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Within that data lies a rift between two of its largest economies, with Italy’s rate seen by economists to have reached 12.3%, the highest since records began in 1977 — and more than double Germany’s comparable level.