MADRID (MarketWatch) -- The number of persons unemployed in Spain reached 20.05% of the population in the first quarter of 2010, the National Institute of Statistics said here on Friday. The total number of jobless now stands at 18,394,200, a gain of 251,800 on the prior quarter. The jobless figure, which was accidentally released earlier in the week by Spanish daily ABC, but the level is the highest in Spain since 1997. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/spain-unemployment-hits-2005-in-first-quarter-2010-04-30
Seems the higher the unemployment rate the better the markets do. Dont worry they will be getting a bailout soon as well. Free bailouts are for everyone.
It's the highest in 13 years so that's obviously a problem, but I wouldn't look at the raw number (20%) and compare it to the US number and say it is twice as bad or whatever. Due to heavy taxation/regulation, Spain has an enormous underground economy, lots of officially unemployed people have jobs that pay under the table.
Iâm always careful reading this kind of statistics as the rules for counting unemployed could differ. The US Clintonâs administration introduced new counting rules where people being unemployed for certain time period are automatically dropped from the list. I think this figure including those people would be ~17%. You can find more info on: http://www.bls.gov/