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People are seen through the window, as they look at the list of jobs in an employment office, in Pamplona, northern Spain AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos

Spanish unemployment level reaches 25 per cent

One Spaniard in four is now officially out of work, with 85,000 more people becoming unemployed between July and September.

ONE SPANIARD IN four is now officially out of work as the economic crisis tightens its grip on the country.

The National Statistics Institute said today that 85,000 more people joined the ranks of the unemployed between July and September, raising the total to 5.78 million. The figures brought the country’s unemployment rate up by around 0.4 percentage points in the third quarter to 25.02 percent.

For those under 25 years of age, the unemployment rate edged down marginally to 52 per cent from 53 per cent in the previous quarter. The institute said that over the past 12 months some 800,000 people had lost their jobs.

Spain is under pressure to ask for outside aid to help deal with its debts. The country is in its second recession in three years. It has already been granted a €100 billion ($130 billion) bailout facility for its troubled banks while many of its regional government are also in bad financial shape.

In September, the European Central Bank said it would buy unlimited amounts of bonds in countries struggling with their debts if they formally apply for aid. This has helped Spain by lowering its borrowing costs, but conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has held off triggering the actual purchases.

Debt crisis

Spain is one of the focal points in Europe’s debt crisis because if it defaulted or needed a full-blown bailout, the finances of the 17-country group that uses the euro could be severely stretched.

Rajoy’s government has introduced austerity measures and financial and labor reforms to convince investors it has a grip on its accounts but they have yet to show any positive effect on the economy.

The measures have led to many strikes and protests. The country faces its second general strike in a year November 14. On Friday, yet another rush-hour go-slow by subway workers caused traffic chaos in the Spanish capital.

Organisations such as the Spanish Red Cross and the Catholic Church charity organization Caritas say unemployment and the austerity measures are leaving tens of thousands of people in need of food and financial help. Caritas said the foundation run by Amancio Ortega — founder of the Zara store parent company Inditex — would donate €20 million to help buy food, medicines and school material.

Read: Mixed fortunes for ruling party in Spanish polls>

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18 Comments
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    Mute Mick Lennon
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:32 PM

    at least the weather’s nice and they have a good football team,every cloud and all that

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    Mute Mark Fagan
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    Oct 26th 2012, 12:55 PM

    I would what the tipping point is going to be one third unemployed or half, but either way I think it will be Spain that finally brings down the euro experiement.

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    Mute rodrigo detriano
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:01 PM

    Does Spain operate the same amount of Government work schemes as Ireland I wonder? I’d say the real unemployment rate here is over 20%

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    Mute Una Dev
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    Oct 27th 2012, 12:04 AM

    This is Ireland if Kenny remains until 2016.

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    Mute Bilbo Baggins
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    Oct 27th 2012, 10:46 AM

    Rodrigo, your probably right, but the Spanish are no dark horses either, it could well be over a third there, realistically it already is as this is only people of working age.

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    Mute Barry
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    Oct 26th 2012, 12:46 PM

    And we think we have it bad here in Ireland?

    Like it or not but the decisions made by the government have stopped things getting much much much worse, the decisions are awful and have an awful affect on people in Ireland but there is no easy way to fix this situation.

    If anyone thought back in 2008 that there was a way of not having an increase in unemployment, allowing banks to fail and not raising taxes and still get through the last few years without any pain then you are only fooling themselves,

    Before some idiot suggests I’m a FF or FG or Labour supporter or other such nonsense, I’m not
    ….

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    Mute Declan McCabe
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:57 PM

    I love the way this duplicate comment has been met with polar opposite reaction by the journals readers.

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    Mute James Ó Cianáin
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:57 PM

    Whoops double comment there Barry

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    Mute Brian Okeeffe
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:52 PM

    “quejicas” …also its pissing down here in barcelona.

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    Mute peter
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:07 PM

    Spain has very strong regions & the politics within these regions are far too strong for it to survive as one country.

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    Mute Brian Okeeffe
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:56 PM

    each day, more and more people routing through the bins here.

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    Mute rodrigo detriano
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    Oct 26th 2012, 2:00 PM

    It’s the same here Brian. Someone actually nicked my brown bin last night.

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Oct 26th 2012, 2:12 PM

    Imagine if they do go into that bailout…even more cuts and taxes. Not a good time for Spain.

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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:04 PM

    I may be wrong Barry but i think people leaving the country may help to massage our true unemployment figures as does those are back in education/skills courses.Lastly saying you don’t support a political party automatically makes me think you do.The government stopping things getting worse?i believe the jury is still out on that one,they’ve just continued FF policies as far as i can see.

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    Mute Richard Day
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    Oct 26th 2012, 6:23 PM

    Things are going to get very tasty there soon. Especially when it reaches 30%+ and over 50% for under 25s. Vive le revolution…

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    Mute jim ahh jim ahh jim
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    Oct 26th 2012, 1:32 PM

    Whats the Spanish for ‘moaners’ ??

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    Mute Fine Gael Fan
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    Oct 26th 2012, 11:00 PM

    Spain need to take a bailout imminently, they might want to play a waiting game but the reality is they can’t afford it.

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    Mute Vinny Murphy
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    Oct 26th 2012, 9:24 PM

    Brian O’Keeffe…..I know of one individual who is routing through them bins…..my son…he’s in Barca’ a few weeks now…..it’s hard to nail a job down but cost o living seems low enough….but if ur really stuck for a bite ….a man il do what a mans’ gotta do !

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