Spanish jobless numbers inch up in February

Spain's unemployment queue inched up slightly in February, the government said Wednesday, due mainly to a rise in the number of jobless in the agriculture sector.

The number of people registered as unemployed rose month-on-month by 2,231 people, or 0.05 percent, to 4.15 million in February, the Labour Ministry said in a statement.

It was the first increase in the number of jobless during the month of February since 2013.

The number of jobless in the agriculture sector rose by 14,029 people but fell by 6,724 people in the construction sector and by 9,753 people in the services sector.

Spain was hit hard by the global financial crisis, experiencing five difficult years of on-off recession that saw unemployment rocket from a low of around eight percent in 2007 to a high of 27 percent in 2013.

The unemployment rate registered a record fall last year, dropping nearly three percentage points to 20.9 percent.