Spanish jobless rate jumps to 24%

Spain’s unemployment rate jumped to nearly 24 per cent in the final quarter of last year.

Finance minister Cristobal Montoro told a parliamentary commission that official figures showed 5.4 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9m in the third quarter.

Spain already has the highest jobless rate in the 17-nation eurozone and is near its record of 24.5 per cent set in 1993.