Spain unemployment hits record high

Spanish unemployment, at a 37-year high, rose more than forecast in the first quarter as efforts to tackle the European Union's biggest budget deficit crimped growth.

The number of jobless rose to more than 6 million for the first time, climbing to 27.2 percent of the workforce, compared with 26.02 percent in the previous three months, the National Statistics Institute in Madrid said today. That was more than the 26.5 percent median forecast of 8 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

In power since December 2011, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil tomorrow fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting a six-year slump in the euro region's fourth-largest economy. Spain's recession dragged into a seventh quarter in the first three months of 2013, leaving the country with more than a fifth of all jobless people in the EU.

The International Monetary Fund last week cut its 2013 forecast for Spain's growth to a 1.6 percent contraction from 1.5 percent and said unemployment will peak at 27 percent this year.

The jobless number is the highest since at least 1976, the year after dictator Francisco Franco's death heralded Spain's transition to democracy. Spain's fourth-largest builder Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas may fire 9.7 percent of its 1,500 garbage collectors amid slower activity, Europa Press reported this month. FCC already is negotiating with unions to eliminate 17.5 percent of jobs in its construction branch, it said.