Spain's Unemployment Rate Hits 27.2%

If you have been following the situation in Europe, you know that a number of countries are currently facing some very dire economic problems.

Case in point - Spain.

Earlier this week, Spain revealed that their unemployment rate spiked up to 27.2% in the first quarter of 2013.

Compare that unemployment rate to countries such as the United States (7.6%) or Canada (7%), and you can get an idea of just how bad things are in countries like Spain and Greece. As a matter of fact, Spain's unemployment rate is almost twice as high as the United States' U-6 unemployment rate (13.8% in March), which is a much broader measure of the underemployment situation in the USA.

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The numbers get even nastier for Spain.

According to their recently released economic numbers, 57% of Spanish citizens under the age of 25 are unemployed. That is an entire generation that is enduring through incredibly hard times and likely losing confidence in the future of their country and their own futures.

A total of 6.2 million people are unemployed in Spain, which is an increase of 237,400 over the previous quarter. This is the first time that Spain has ever had more than 6 million of its citizens unemployed at the same time.

3.5 million of the unemployed in Spain have been out of work for at least a year - compare this to the United States, where 4.6 million people have "officially" been out of work for at least 27 weeks or more. This is staggering when you consider that the United States has a population of 313,914,040 while Spain has a population of just 47,190,493.

One more unbelievable piece of data when it comes to Spain's employment situation - Spain currently has 1.91 million households where nobody is working.

Source: USAToday.com - Spain's Unemployment 27.2%, Tops 6 Million

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