⁍ Spain’s unemployment rate rose faster than expected in the third quarter.

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⁍ The rate climbed to 16.26% in the July-September period from 15.33% in the previous quarter.

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⁍ The number of unemployed people in the country surged by 355,000 from the previous quarter.

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– Spain’s economy took a hit from the H1N1 virus in the third quarter, with the unemployment rate rising to 16.26% from 15.33% in the previous quarter, the country’s statistics agency says. Economists had expected the rate to hold steady at 15.33%, Reuters notes. The number of unemployed people in the country jumped 355,000 from the previous quarter to 3.72 million, the biggest quarterly jump since 2012, the agency says.