Jobless claims hits new record highs in November

Jobless claims in Spain rose for the fourth month in a row, reaching new record highs in November as the economy looked set to contract at the end of the year.

According to figures released Friday by the Labor Ministry, the number of people officially registered as unemployed climbed by 59,536 last month, equivalent to an increase of 1.37 percent from October. That meant the ranks of the jobless swelled to 4.42 million, the highest figure since the current statistical series was initiated in 1997. Compared with the same month a year earlier the increase was 310,168, or 7.55 percent.

The number of people out of work increased in all sectors of the economy except agriculture.

The economic downturn also manifested itself in the number of people signed up with the Social Security system, which fell by 117,782, or 2.07 percent, to 17.25 million.

November is traditionally a bad month for the labor market. The increase in jobless claims for the month hit a record 171,243 in November 2009 when the country was still in the grip of its worst recession in living memory. However, the extent of the latest deterioration in the economy over the past 12 months was revealed by the fact that the increase in the number of people registered as being out of work was only 24,318 in November of last year.

In a report earlier this week, the OECD estimated activity would contract in the last quarter of this year after stagnating in the previous three months. In its latest monthly economic bulleting released later in the week, the Bank of Spain also concurred output had taken a further turn for the worse in the past few months.

Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy earlier this week met the heads of the country's largest labor unions and employer association to urge them to reach a rapid agreement on reforms to the job market to address the problem of unemployment shooting up during times of economic crisis.

According to figures released earlier this week by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat, Spain continued to top the EU jobless table as the unemployment rate rose to 22.8 percent in October, more than double the average in the 27-member bloc, where the figure was only 9.8 percent.

The OECD predicts the jobless rate in Spain will rise to an average 22.9 percent next year from 21.5 percent this year.