MADRID: Spain's jobless rate soared to a 15-year high of 21.52 percent in the third quarter, data showed Friday, a stinging blow for the Socialist government just three weeks ahead of elections.
The towering unemployment rate, up from 20.89 percent in the second quarter this year, is the highest since the end of 1996 and the highest among major industrialised nations.
Among 16-24 year olds, the rate was a staggering 45.8 percent, barely down from 46.1 percent three months earlier.
The overall unemployment queue grew to 4.978 million people at the end of September from 4.834 million at the end of June, National Statistics Institute figures showed.
The figures make grim reading for a Socialist government already facing the prospect of a defeat in November 20 elections by the conservative opposition Popular Party.
High unemployment and a series of painful spending cuts to rein in runaway government budget deficits have provoked widespread resentment and a nationwide protest movement dubbed the "indignants."
Finance Minister Elena Salgado defended the government's record on employment.
"What people say, including in the recommendations of the European Council, is that Spain must adopt measures to favour growth and create employment," she told Cadena Ser Radio.
"And that is what we are working on, by carrying on with a process of changes in our economy which will make us more competitive and make an economy that generates more employment."
The economy slumped into recession in the second half of 2008, battered by a global financial meltdown and the collapse of a property bubble, which threw millions out of work.
Economic growth has been anaemic ever since. Analysts widely expect an economic expansion of about 0.8 percent this year.
About 3.2 million people have joined the jobless queue since the crisis began four years ago and it will take a long time to absorb them back into the economy, IE Business School analyst Juan Carlos Martinez Lazaro said.
The latest figures showed the number of households in which everyone was unemployed rose 57,000 to 1.425 million, he noted, warning of a potential impact on social stability.
Before the summer, the government had been hoping for improved figures ahead of the election, analyst Lazaro said.
"In the end we have the exact opposite. It confirms the deterioration of the Spanish economy."
Barclays Capital analyst Antonio Garcia Pascual said cost-cutting by Spanish regional governments, which are shedding public sector jobs so as to trim budget deficits, was further hurting employment.
Labour Minister Valeriano Gomez said the increase in joblessness during the three months period, when firms traditionally hire extra staff for the tourism season, was unusual.
In the previous two years, tens of thousands of jobs had been created between July and September, he said.
"When unemployment rises in the third quarter it means the situation is very serious," said economist Sandalio Gomez of the IESE Business School.
The jobless figures were also a reminder of the challenges ahead for the eurozone, a day after markets welcomed an agreement struck by European leaders to tackle the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Spain's government earlier this year revised upwards its 2011 unemployment forecast to 19.8 percent from 19.3 percent and the problem is expected to improve only slowly in coming years.
The politician widely expected to win next month's election, conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, seized on the news to condemn the ruling Socialists' record, in extracts from a speech released by his party.
"The worst enemy of social policies is he who runs the economy badly," he said.
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