Spain's jobless rate soared to a 15-year high of 21.52 per cent in the third quarter of 2011, data showed Friday, a stinging blow for the government just three weeks ahead of elections.
The towering unemployment rate, up from 20.89 per cent in the previous quarter, is the highest since the end of 1996 and the highest among major industrialised nations.
Among 16-24 year olds, the rate was a staggering 45.8 per cent, barely down from 46.1 percent three months earlier.
The overall unemployment queue grew to 4.978 million people at the end of September from 4.834 million at the end of June, National Statistics Institute figures showed.
The figures make grim reading for a Socialist government already facing the prospect of a drubbing in 20 November elections at the hands of the conservative opposition Popular Party.
High unemployment and a series of painful spending cuts to rein in runaway government budget deficits have provoked widespread resentment and a nationwide "indignant" protest movement.
Finance Minister Elena Salgado defended the government's record on employment.
"What people say, including in the recommendations of the European Council, is that Spain must adopt measures to favour growth and create employment," she told Cadena Ser Radio.
"And that is what we are working on, by carrying on with a process of changes in our economy which will make us more competitive and make an economy that generates more employment."
The economy slumped into recession in the second half of 2008, battered by a global financial meltdown and the collapse of a property bubble, which threw millions out of work.
Economic growth has been anaemic ever since.
Analysts widely expect economic expansion of about 0.8 per cent this year, partly because of the number of people excluded from economic activity.
About 3.2 million people have joined the jobless queue since the crisis began four years ago and it will take a long time to absorb them back into the economy, IE Business School analyst Juan Carlos Martinez Lazaro said.
The latest figures showed the number of homes in which everyone was unemployed rose by some 57,000 to 1.425 million, he noted, warning of the potential impact on social stability.
Before the summer, the government had been hoping for improved figures ahead of the election, the analyst said.
"In the end we have the exact opposite; this confirms the deterioration of the Spanish economy."
Barclays Capital analyst Antonio Garcia Pascual said cost-cutting by Spanish regional governments, which are shedding public sector jobs so as to trim budget deficits, was further hurting employment.
The jobless figures were also a reminder of the challenges ahead for the euro zone, a day after markets welcomed an agreement struck by European leaders to tackle the region's sovereign debt crisis.
The European deal will wipe out 100 billion euros ($140 billion) of Greece's debts, reinforce commercial banks' capital defences and deliver a huge boost to a sovereign bailout fund.
But vulnerable European economies still face a huge challenge cutting costs while protecting growth and jobs.
Spain's government earlier this year revised upwards its 2011 unemployment forecast to 19.8 per cent from 19.3 per cent, projecting the problem to continue for years at 18.5 per cent in 2012, 17.3 per cent in 2013 and 16 per cent in 2014.
Besides the twin problems of high unemployment and weak economic growth, provisional figures Friday showed Spain faces stubbornly high inflation with an annual rate of 3.0 per cent in October, unchanged from September.
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