Spanish unemployment swells to 3.2 million in 2008
MADRID - THE number of people unemployed in Spain rose by 1.3 million in 2008 to a total of 3.2 million, the National Statistics Institute said on Friday, the latest confirmation of the country's deepening economic woes.
The institute said the number of unemployed soared by 609,100 in the final quarter alone. It said 13.9 per cent of the working population was now out of work, 2.9 percentage points more than in the third quarter.
The European Union predicts Spain's unemployment rate, the highest in the region, may reach 19 per cent this year.
Spain was one of Europe's main job creators in recent years, but the economy has cooled sharply with the near collapse of the country's once booming construction industry in the face of the international financial crisis.
The institute's statistics are based on quarterly surveys of 65,000 households and are the ones most used by economists. -- AP
