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View All NewsSpain — Unemployment up again
03 September 2009
Figures released yesterday by the Spanish ministry of labour and immigration revealed an increase in unemployment in August, ending a three-month stretch of quiet on the labour front, the Financial Times reports.
The number of registered unemployed hit 3.63 million, rising by 85,000. This is 1.1 million more compared to the figure for last August.
The hardest hit sectors were construction and services, with much of the increase due to job losses among temporary workers in the tourist industry as seasonal contracts expired.
No country in the European Union comes even close to what Spain is experiencing with regard to unemployment. According to the bloc’s statistics office, the total number of Spain's jobless people, both registered and unregistered, exceeds 4.1 million. This represents 18.5% of the country’s labour force, which makes the union average of 9% look pale in comparison.