"The situation is serious. There is still room for a deterioration in unemployment"
- Ricardo Santos, an economist at BNP Paribas SA
Spanish unemployment rate soared to a new record in the third quarter, as a worsening recession left more than one in four workers jobless. The Ministry of Labour said jobless rate rose to 25.02%, up from 24.6%in the previous quarter, while among workers aged 16-24, it was flat at around 52%. At the same time, 18.2 million in the eurozone are currently unemployed, with 5.8 million of them are Spaniards.
"The situation is serious," said Ricardo Santos, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. "There is still room for a deterioration in unemployment. Activity is weak and the government will reduce jobs as there are strict targets to adjust the number of public-sector temporary workers, especially in health and education."
"In the space of just five years, unemployment in Spain has risen from 8% to now just over 25%," said the BBC's Tom Burridge in Madrid on Friday. "In parts of southern Spain, one in three of those looking for a job can't find one."
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.10 per cent to 270.51. Germany's DAX Index rose 0.44 per cent to 7,231.85, while France's CAC 40 Index jumped 0.69 per cent to 3,435.09.
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