Greece's unemployment rate hits 10%

The country's debt problems have led to demonstrations

Greece's unemployment rate increased to 10.6% in November 2009, according to the country's national statistics service, NSS.

The rate rose from 9.8% in October, and is also up from the jobless rate of 7.8% recorded a year earlier.

There are now nearly 532,000 unemployed people in the country.

EU leaders are meeting in Brussels later to discuss ways to rescue Greece from a financial crisis that is threatening to undermine the euro.

The November numbers are the most up-to-date unemployment figures for Greece. December 2009 jobless rates are available for most of the other countries in the EU.

Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro hit 10% in December for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999, according to Eurostat, the statistical office for the EU.

Some 15.8 million people are now out of work in the eurozone.

Spain continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone. The rate rose to 19.5% in December.

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