Spanish jobless hit record 5 million in February

Spanish unemployment continued to worsen in February, as a record 5.04 million found themselves unemployed — 26 percent of the population at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Associated Press reports that the unemployment listed jumped by a whopping 59,444 from January to February, as Spain attempts to battles its way out of a second recession and a painful housing crisis.

Read more from GlobalPost: Spanish youth unemployment hits 55 percent

According to the Guardian, the new data doesn't include a million people that are out of work, but haven't registered as unemployed.

Some blame Spain's painful new austerity programs for the decline in employment, programs that help to balance the budget but also increase pressure on workers and slash welfare funds, wrote the Washington Post.

Spain's youth have been particularly hard-hit by unemployment, with 55 percent out of work in the last quarter of 2012, an increase from the previous three months.

"Europe is facing an often-cited “lost generation” which experiences long periods of unemployment or unstable jobs during their first working years, with serious long-term consequences," said Stefan Vetter of Deutsche Bank to Business Insider, also taking into account the dismal youth unemployment figures in Greece.