Spain warns of five million jobless

MADRID: The number of unemployed in Spain, which has the highest jobless rate among developed countries, could reach a record of more than five million, the labour minister warned in an interview published on Saturday.

"Whether or not we exceed five million unemployed will depend on the active population," Valeriano Gomez told the business daily Expansion, referring to a possible rise in the working-age population.

"It must be said that in Spain during the crisis, the workforce has been very erratic."

Spain's booming construction industry drew millions of unskilled immigrant workers and generated high levels of economic growth in the decade to 2008.