Pain in Spain deepens: 21.5% jobless

Spain’s unemployment rate has risen more than half a percentage point in the third quarter to a heady 21.5 per cent.

The country’s national statistics institute said yesterday that the jobless ranks swelled by nearly 145,000 in the July-September period. The jobless rate in the second quarter was 20.9 per cent. The total number of people unemployed as of the end of the third quarter was 4,978,300.

Spain is struggling to recover economic growth after crawling out of nearly two years of recession. Opposition conservatives are tipped to score a landslide win in general elections on 20 November.

Global Insight economist Raj Badiani said: “The lack of job creation is likely to linger well into 2012. The austerity measures are cutting into the number of public-sector jobs, while private-sector employment is expected to fall well short of picking up the slack.”

He said a number of factors pointed to an unemployment rate above 20 per cent “for most of 2012”.