MADRID, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - The abrupt slowdown in Spain's once-booming property sector will lead to a rise in the number of Spaniards who will cross over into France to pick grapes this year, a Spanish union predicted Tuesday.

MADRID, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - Spain received yet more bad news on its once-buoyant economy on Monday as the number of registered unemployed rose in July for the fourth straight month and consumer confidence hit a record low.

MADRID, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - The number of unemployed in Spain rose by 1.5 percent in July from the June figure, the labour ministry said on Monday, in yet another sign of the slump in the country's once-buoyant economy.

The construction sector, which had been the driving force behind the economic boom, was the hardest hit, with a 5.49 percent increase.

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2008 (AFP) - The US unemployment rate hit a four-year high in July as employers shed jobs for a seventh straight month amid economic uncertainty, a Labor Department survey showed Friday.

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2008 (AFP) - US employers shed 51,000 nonfarm jobs in July marking a seventh straight month of job cuts as the economy struggles for momentum, a Labor Department survey showed Friday.

Despite fresh job losses, the monthly government snapshot was not as bad as feared as most economists had predicted 75,000 jobs were lost during July.

DUBLIN, August 1, 2008 (AFP) - Ireland's unemployment rate surged to 5.9 percent in July, the highest rate since April 1999, official figures showed Friday.

July's figure compared with a rate of 5.6 percent in June, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

COPENHAGEN, July 31, 2008 (AFP) - The Danish unemployment rate continued to disintegrate in June, tumbling to a record low of 1.6 percent, official figures showed on Thursday.

While the jobless rate fell just 0.1 points from May, it has plunged from 3.5 percent in June 2007, and from 6.2 percent in December 2003, according to seasonally adjusted figures from Statistics Denmark.

BRUSSELS, July 31, 2008 (AFP) - The unemployment rate in the 15 countries sharing the euro held steady in June from May at 7.3 percent, according to the European Union's Eurostat data agency on Thursday.

FRANKFURT, July 31, 2008 (AFP) - The German unemployment rate edged up to 7.7 percent in July, official figures showed on Thursday.

The number of unemployed workers nonetheless fell by 20,000, seasonally corrected figures by the national employment agency showed, slightly more than a forecast of 15,000 by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

BUDAPEST, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - The Hungarian unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent in the period from April to June, a slight decline from 7.7 percent in the March to May period, the central statistics bureau KSH said on Tuesday.

But on a 12-month basis, unemployment rose from 7.0 percent in the equivalent period of last year.