Portugal‘s unemployment rate rose to 15% in February, continuing to reach new highs as the austerity measures imposed after the nation’s €78bn bailout bite into the country’s economy, according to data released Monday, 2 April, by the European statistics office Eurostat.

The Portuguese seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 15% in February from 12.3% registered in the same period one year ago, and from 14.8% registered in January 2012.

Portugal’s unemployment figures were the third highest in the EU, behind Greece (21% in December 2011) and Spain (23.6%).

Youth unemployment in Portugal rose to 35.4% in February from 26.9% in the same period one year ago, ranking among the EU 27 member states behind Spain, with a 50.5% unemployment rate among the young in February, and Greece, whose data for February were still not avaliable.

Greece registered a youth unemployment rate of 50.4% in December 2011, the latest data available for the country.

The EU’s unemployment rate in February was 10.2%, from 9.5% in the same period one year ago and 10.1% from January 2012.