Europeans fear worst yet to come on jobs

Europeans fear more jobs will be lost in the economic crisis, with Scandinavians the most optimistic and Balts the gloomiest, a survey showed on Friday.

The Eurobarometer poll, carried out in June, showed 61 percent of people in the 27-nation European Union and candidate states believed the impact of the crisis on the job market had not yet peaked. Some 28 percent thought the worst was over.

Analysts say if people are pessimistic about employment prospects they will be less willing to open their wallets, an attitude that may prolong the worst economic crisis since World War Two.

"Understandably Europeans are concerned about the impact of the crisis on their jobs and families," EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said in a statement.

Fears were the biggest in the Baltic countries hit especially hard by recession, with 82 percent of Latvians, 76 percent of Estonians and 74 percent of Lithuanians believing their countries would suffer further job cuts.

In Sweden and Denmark, 52 percent and 58 percent respectively thought the worst was still to come.

The economy of the euro zone, the biggest part of the wider EU, shrank by 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months.

The executive European Commission expects smaller contractions in subsequent quarters and a modest recovery in 2010.

But the unemployment rate usually lags economic developments, with the Commission expecting it to hit 9.9 percent this year and 11.5 percent next year in the euro zone from 7.5 percent in 2008.

The poll showed 32 percent of Europeans were concerned about losing their jobs because of the crisis and 47 percent feared their children would join the ranks of the unemployed.