Jobless claims for September hit 15-year high

Jobless claims in Spain climbed by the most in September in 15 years as a political row broke out ahead of November's general election about the causes behind the surprise deterioration in the labor market.

The number of people registered as unemployed last month climbed by 95,817 to 4.22 million, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday. That was the largest increase for the month of September since the ministry began compiling the current series in 1996, and almost double that of September last year.

The secretary of state for employment, Mar Luz Rodríguez, acknowledged it would be "hard" for the economy to be growing enough at the end of the year to create employment.

Rodríguez attributed the unexpected pick-up in joblessness to the traditional wave of layoffs after the end of the summer tourist season and to a big influx of first-time jobseekers.

But she also waded into controversy by laying part of the blame on regional governments controlled by the opposition Popular Party taking the ax to education and health services in order to meet deficit-reduction targets. This, she claimed, swelled the ranks of the jobless by 15,200 last month.

This sparked an angry response from PP leaders. "The rise in unemployment is due to the disastrous management of the Socialist government," Lucía Figar, the educational commissioner of Madrid said.