Spain's jobless drama laid bare as IKEA receives 20,000 applications in 2 days for 400 posts

May take years to bring down country’s 26 per cent unemployment rate

MADRID, Spain (AP) — An IKEA store in Spain says it has received 20,000 applications for just 400 jobs, an unprecedented rush that crashed its computer servers and illustrated the desperation the country's 6 million unemployed people face.

Company spokesman Rodrigo Sanchez said Wednesday the online applications received since Monday were for jobs as store workers in a shop to be opened next year outside the eastern city of Valencia.

He said the most applications the company had received before in Spain were 50,000 in southern Jerez, but that was over a period of a month.

Official figures show Spain may be beginning to emerge from a more than two-year recession but the government admits it will take years to bring down the 26 per cent unemployment rate.

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