Spain's jobless rate shot to 22.85% at the end of 2011, with more than half of young people out of work, official data showed.
It is the highest jobless rate in the industrialised world.
The number of unemployed burst through the five-million mark, surging 295,300 to 5.27 million in the last quarter of 2011, the National Statistics Institute report showed.
As a result, the jobless rate at the end of 2011 surged to a near 17-year record, rising from 21.52% the previous quarter.
Even more dramatic, the jobless rate among those aged 16-24 climbed to 51.4% at the end of the year from 45.8% on 30 September.
- Keywords:
- spain,
- jobs,
- spanish economy
