Spain's jobless rate soared to a 15-year high of 21.52% in the third quarter of 2011, data showed today, a stinging blow to the government three weeks ahead of elections.
The towering unemployment rate, up from 20.89% in the previous quarter, 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%, barely down from 46.1% 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 drubbing in November 20 elections at the hands of the conservative opposition Popular Party.
High unemployment and a series of painful spending cuts to rein in runaway government budgets has provoked widespread resentment and even sparked a nationwide "indignant" protest movement.
The Spanish 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 expansion of about 0.8% this year partly because of the number of people excluded from economic activity.
The latest figures were a reminder of the challenges ahead for euro zone, a day after financial markets had welcomed an agreement struck by European leaders to tackle the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.
The European deal will wipe out €100 billion of Greece's debts, reinforce commercial banks'capital defences and deliver a huge boost to a sovereign bail-out fund.
In announcing a euro summit agreement, the leaders' statement included a warning that Spain must reduce stimulate growth so as to reduce the "unacceptable" level of unemployment. In particular, they urged Spain to make companies more flexible, to make workers more employable and to improve competitiveness especially with reforms to the services sector.
Spain's government revised upwards its 2011 unemployment rate forecast to 19.8% from 19.3%. But even the official government figures foresee high jobless rates for years to come: 18.5% in 2012, 17.3% in 2013 and 16% in 2014.
Besides the problems of high unemployment and weak economic growth, provisional figures today showed Spain faces stubbornly high inflation with an annual rate of 3% in October, unchanged from September.
