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Spanish jobless rate soars to near 15-year high
  • | AFP | October 28, 2011 05:39 PM

Spain\'s unemployment rate soared to a near 15-year high in the third quarter of 2011, data showed Friday, grim news for the major eurozone economy.

People wait in line at a government employment office in Madrid.

The jobless rate leapt to 21.52 percent, the highest since the final quarter of 1996, from 20.89 percent in the previous quarter, the National Statistics Institute said.

It confirms Spain\'s ranking as the country with the highest unemployment rate among industrialized nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The news also underscores major challenges ahead reigniting growth in the economy, the fourth largest in the eurozone.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession in the second half of 2008, battered by a global financial meltdown and the collapse of a property bubble, which destroyed millions of jobs.

Economic growth has been anaemic ever since.

The unemployment queue grew to 4.978 million people at the end of September from 4.834 million at the end of June, the figures showed.

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