MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Over five million Spaniards out of a job; recession forecasted in 2012 first quarter

Not much hope for jobless Spaniards in the near future

Spain’s unemployment total has passed the five million mark, with the jobless rate shooting up from 21.5% to 22.8%, which represents something like one out of four workers don’t have a job.

This in numbers means there were 5.3 million people out of work at the end of last month, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter.

The figure was lower than the 5.4 million estimated by Spain’s Finance minister. However Spain already has the highest unemployment rate in the 17-nation Euro zone.

Unemployment in the UK stands at 2.68 million, a rate of 8.4%.

The new conservative Popular Party government has pledged new labour reforms to try to halt further job losses.

The Spanish economy is expected to slide back into recession this quarter because of declines in gross domestic product (GDP) in the last quarter of 2011 and the first of 2012.