Unemployment before and after the financial crisis

MAY Day is being celebrated across the world. Since the end of the 19th century, when the Second International declared that it should belong to international workers, the day has been associated with left-wing anti-government protest. This year the marches have extra bite: elections in France and Greece, austerity with no end in sight and, above all, high unemployment have made sure of that. Though it was once a pagan festival, May Day's modern incarnation actually commemorates the Haymarket massacre, when police opened fire on a crowd of workers in Chicago in 1886, after an anarchist had thrown a bomb at them. Outside Greece, violent confrontations between police and the crowd have been mercifully rare in the wake of the financial crisis. The worst fear of governments across Europe is that unemployment and GDP figures like those just delivered by Spain will change that. Economic output is still 4% below its pre-crisis peak and on April 30th official data confirmed it has become the 12th country in Europe to fall into recession.