Spain crisis deepens with jobless rise, downgrade

The Associated Press

AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy answers questions from journalists regarding the government's latest economic measures during a join press conference with NATO's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, not seen, after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Thursday, April 26, 2012.

MADRID (AP) — Spain's economic woes deepened Friday as the government revealed that unemployment rose to nearly 25 percent, a day after a credit ratings agency downgraded the country's debt and warned it faces an uphill battle to get a grip on its finances at a time of recession.

Official figures showed that unemployment has jumped to 24.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012 — the highest rate in the 17-country eurozone — from 22.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. The data showed that another 365,900 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year, taking the total unemployed to 5.6 million.

The current rate is the highest since 1994, when it reached 24.55 percent. The rate for people under 25 year is now 52 percent, up from 48.5 percent in the previous quarter.

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April 27, 2012

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Last Update: 10:32 AM ET