Minister: Spain unemployment up near 24 pct

MADRID - Spanish Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro says the country's unemployment has jumped from 21.5 percent to nearly 24 percent in the fourth quarter.

Montoro told a parliamentary commission Thursday that official figures due out on Friday will show 5.4 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter.

Spain already has the highest unemployment rate in the 17-nation eurozone.

The new conservative Popular Party government has pledged major labor reforms in a desperate bid to halt further job losses.

The economy is expected to fall back into recession this quarter because of declines in GDP in the last three months of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.