MADRID, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - Spain received yet more bad news on its once-buoyant economy on Monday as the number of registered unemployed rose in July for the fourth straight month and consumer confidence hit a record low.

The construction sector, which had been the driving force behind a decade-long economic boom, was the hardest hit by the jobless rise, jumping 5.49 percent, the labour ministry said.

It said there were 2.427 million registered unemployed in July, up 1.5 percent from June and the fourth monthly increase running. Over a year, the numbers of jobless have grown by 23.1 percent, the ministry said.

'These are worrying figures,' said Maravillas Rojo, who is in charge of employment at the labour ministry.

The National Statistics Institute announced last month that the unemployment rate leapt to 10.44 percent in the second quarter, its highest level in more than three years and up from 9.63 percent in the first.

The government last month also hiked its prediction for unemployment in 2009 to 12.5 percent from 11 percent.

Spain led job creation in the eurozone in the past few years, with an unemployment rate of 7.95 percent in the second quarter of 2007, its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 1978.

But soaring oil prices and the downturn in the building sector caused by stagnating property prices, rising interest rates and the international credit crunch have battered the credit-fuelled expansion in the eurozone's fourth largest economy.

Economy Minister Pedro Solbes acknowledged in an interview published in the newspaper El Pais Sunday that 'the economic situation is worse than we had all predicted.'

As the jobless numbers climbed, the consumer confidence index fell to 46.30 in July from 51.70 in June, its lowest level since it was created in 2004, Spain's official ICO credit institute said.

'Consumer confidence dropped because they believe the economic situation has worsened in the past six months, and their expectations for the next six months have declined.'

'The main cause of this downturn is the concern over employment ... in line with the rise in unemployment in recent months,' it said.

The indicator is calculated through telephone interviews that measure the perception of the current economic situation as well as its prospects for the future.