The number of jobless people in Spain stood at 3.13 million in December 2008, a record since the country began to collate information about the unemployed in 1996.

In 2008, the country had 999,400 more people without work than in 2007, an increase of 46.9 percent, the labor ministry said on Thursday.

The service and construction sectors were among the worst hit, with 492,000 and 307,000 out of work respectively. Industry and agriculture registered 112,000 and 32,500 more jobless people respectively than in 2007.

In 2008, 411,000 foreign immigrants were listed as job seekers, 199,000 more than in 2007, an increase of 93.8 percent.

December 2008 saw the ninth consecutive monthly rise in the number of jobless, with a total of 139,700 more people without work than in November, four times higher than the number for the same month in 2007. The construction sector bore the brut, with about 71,000 more people without jobs.

Spain, the fifth biggest economy in Europe and with a population of some 46 million people, has been battered by the global financial crisis with its key construction sector badly hit in particular.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero warned the situation in the labor market would continue to be grave. He hoped it would begin to improve in March when the government's stimulus package starts to bear fruit.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2009)