Unemployment soaring for Spain

Baltimore News.Net
Saturday 31st July, 2010

Spain's National Statistics Institute announced Friday that the country’s unemployment rate had soared to 20.09%, the highest it has been in thirteen years.

In the first quarter of the year the unemployment rate was 20.05%.

This new data means that a total of 4.6 million are without a job in Spain and these individuals will be claiming unemployment benefits, further burdening a government already spending beyond its means.

Although the 20% figure is among the highest of unemployment rates in the developing world and especially in the European Union, data released earlier in the year by Eurostat revealed countries on the Baltic such as Latvia and Estonia to have similar unemployment statistics.

The overall unemployment figure for all of the EU in May was 9.6%, which is about equal to the United States.

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