Spanish registered unemployment rose for a second month in September amid a worsening recession.

The number of people registering for jobless benefits rose 79,645 from August to 4.7 million, according to data released today by the Labour Ministry in Madrid.

That compares with an increase of 95,817 in the same month last year.

The Bank of Spain said September 26 the euro area's fourth- largest economy is still shrinking at a "significant" pace in the third quarter.

Its second recession since 2009 deepened in the previous three months, pushing the European Union's highest unemployment rate to 24.6 per cent, a record in the country's 36 years of democratic history.

Economists contradict prime minister Mariano Rajoy's forecast that unemployment has peaked at a quarter of the workforce.

The proportion of jobless will rise to 26.3 per cent in 2013, according to the median of six forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.

Bloomberg