Spanish Business News

Spanish unemployment, officially the highest in the European Union, is at a 14-year peak latest data show, just as the government attacks illegal jobs which experts say cast doubt on the figures.

The statistics agency Ine said on Friday that the unemployment rate had risen to 21.29 percent, the highest level since the beginning of 2007.

But also on Friday the government was to approve a raft of measures to attack undeclared or so-called "black" unemployment.

Some estimates say this accounts for about 20 percent of gross domestic product and some experts say it makes a nonsense of the unemployment data.

Spain has the highest unemployment rates in the European Union and in the area covered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, with figures twice the averages.

A study by the Foundation of Spanish Savings Banks (Funcas) published in March estimated that the undeclared market accounted for four million jobs and 17.0 percent of GDP.

Budget ministry experts estimated that it accounted for 23.3 percent of GDP, representing 245 billion euros ($363 billion) of which 161.5 billion euros was in the form of tax fraud.

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