Nearly one Spaniard in four is unemployed, according to data released yesterday, as the country’s economic and financial predicament prompted a government minister to talk of a “crisis of enormous proportions”.

The data from the National Statistics Institute showed 367,000 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year. That means more than 5.6m Spaniards – or 24.4 per cent of the workforce – are unemployed, close to a record high set in 1994.

The data, which came on the heels of another sovereign credit rating downgrade, prompted José Manuel García-Margallo, foreign minister, to say that they were “terrible for everyone and terrible for the government”. He compared the European Union to the doomed liner Titanic, saying that passengers would be saved only if all worked together to find a solution.