September sees almost 100,000 join unemployment line
Government coy on job-creation forecast as number out of work stays well above four-million mark
Jobless claims in Spain grew 2.32 percent in September from the previous month with 95,817 more people out of work compared to August, the Labor Ministry said on Tuesday.
The hardest hit were the service sectors where temporary work for the summer ended for many. Tuesday's figures were the worst on record for the month of September since 1996.
The total number of people out of work has now reached 4,226,744.
While Economy Minister Elena Salgado said that she hoped for "some type of recovery" by the end of the year, another government official said it was "truly difficult" that the Zapatero administration's goal for creating 100,000 new jobs by the end of 2011 would be reached.
Mari Luz Rodríguez, secretary of state for labor, explained that the economic situation, marked by the euro-zone debt crisis and lack of investor confidence, "make its more complicated" for the government to achieve its objective.
