Young females are being hardest hit by the economic downturn in Spain as their employment prospects continue to look bleak.

That is according to the latest set of figures from the EU's own statistics agency, Eurostat, which has revealed that the jobless rate for this demographic is currently the highest on the whole continent.

The figures show that 19.2 per cent of the female population in Spain are currently out of work.

At the same time, 42.9 per cent of Spaniards under the age of 25 are now unemployed, by far the highest proportion in Europe, with second-placed Latvia some nine percentage points behind.

These figures come as Spain's own Labor Ministry has revealed that the number of jobless claims being made across the country climbed to 3.9 million in November.

However, while this represents a rise of around 60,500 on October's total, employment secretary General Maravillas Rojo has stated that this is nevertheless "much lower than the same month last year", suggesting that the employment situation in Spain is starting to improve.