Spain pushes jobless figures in euro zone to record high

Spain helped drive average unemployment in the euro zone to a new record high in February, accounting for five out of every 10 new jobless in the month in the bloc.

According to figures released Monday by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat, the jobless rate in the single-currency zone rose from 10.7 percent at the start of the year to 10.8 percent, with Spain leading the way as its unemployment rate increased from 23.3 percent to 23.6 percent, by far the highest figure in the bloc. The rate in the EU climbed to 10.2 percent from 10.1 percent.

The Popular Party government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expects the jobless rate to rise to more than 24 percent this year when it predicts the economy will shrink 1.7 percent.

The Rajoy administration last Friday announced a draconian budget, with the biggest spending cuts since Spain returned to democracy over 30 years ago. The austerity drive aims to cut the public deficit from 8.5 percent of GDP last year to 5.3 percent this year.

In Portugal, where the government is also committed to austerity measures as part of its 78-billion-euro bailout from the IMF and the EU, the jobless rate hit a record high of 15.0 percent, up from 14.8 percent in January.

For the first time ever, over half the population aged under 25 in Spain were out of work as the jobless rate hit 50.5 percent.