Spanish Registered Jobless Rises for Third Month

 

Registered unemployment in Spain, which has Europe's highest jobless rate, rose for the third month in October as the economy struggles to recover from an almost two-year recession.

The number of people registering for unemployment benefits rose by 68,213, or 1.7 percent, from September to 4.09 million, the Labor Ministry in Madrid said in an e-mailed statement today.

Spain's unemployment rate, double the European average, fell in the third quarter to 19.8 percent, even as Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the number should be viewed with "prudence." The economic recovery probably slowed from July to September, Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Oct. 5, as the government tries to slash the euro region's third-largest budget deficit with the deepest austerity measures in at least three decades.