The ranks of Spain's unemployed climbed by 85,000 inthe third quarter to more than 5.75 million, pushing the jobless rate to arecord 25.02 percent, the National Statistics Institute, or INE, said Friday.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government forecast in Julythat Spain would end the year with an unemployment rate of 24.6 percent.
The figures released Friday come from the INE's workforcesurvey, which also shows the number of people with jobs down by 96,900 to 17.3million.
The INE survey found that the number of Spanish householdsin which nobody is employed stands at 1.7 million, another record.
Construction, which was hammered by the collapse of adecade-long real estate boom, was the only sector not to see increases in unemploymentover the 12 months ending Sep 30, the INE said.
Spain has the highest jobless rate in the 27-member EuropeanUnion.
The Iberian nation's economy contracted 0.4 percent in thethird quarter and continues to face strong headwinds, the central bank saidearlier this week.
Median annual household income in Spain fell 1.9 percentthis year to 24,609 euros ($32,109), according to the latest national survey onliving conditions.
With Spain mired in recession for the second time in fouryears, 12.7 percent of families said they struggle to make their money lastuntil the end of the month, compared with 9.8 percent last year.