Spain Jobless Rate Tops 20%
April 30th, 2010Via AFP:
Spain’s jobless rate topped 20 percent in the first quarter, national statistics institute INE said Friday, fueling fears over the country’s public finances which have rattled global financial markets.
The number of unemployed jumped by 280,200 to 4.61 million, more than in Germany which has nearly twice Spain’s population, for a jobless rate of 20.05 percent. The unemployment rate rose from 18.83 percent in the fourth quarter.
The last time the unemployment rate topped 20 percent in Spain was in the fourth quarter of 1997 when it hit 20.11 percent.
Spain’s jobless rate has soared since the global credit crisis hastened the collapse of its labour-intensive construction industry at the end of 2008.
The country has the highest unemployment rate in the 16-nation eurozone and accounts for half the region’s job losses over the last two years, according to the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat.
