It may have dropped a few places in the news headlines but the credit crunch story continues to unfold at an alarming rate. Last week saw the release of the latest European unemployment figures from the Eurostat data agency. And they don’t make happy reading.

It may have dropped a few places in the news headlines but the credit crunch story continues to unfold at an alarming rate. Last week saw the release of the latest European unemployment figures from the Eurostat data agency. And they don’t make happy reading.

In April the unemployment rate in the eurozone rose to 9.2 percent from 8.9 in March. Meanwhile unemployment in the wider EU rose to 8.6 percent from 8.4 percent. Overall the amount of people out of work in the eurozone increased to 14.58 million – an increase of 396,000.

Two years ago these figures would have been front page news. Today they appear worryingly normal. It is crucial that we don’t become complacent about the financial conditions we find ourselves in. Otherwise this story will be one that doesn’t have a happy ending for a very long time.