The coronavirus epidemic has destroyed the jobs of over a million Spaniards, but with lockdowns preventing them from looking for work, they were excluded from the unemployment count, according to AFP.

Figures published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed the number of unemployed rose by only 55,000 between April and June to 3.4 million. That pushed the unemployment rate to 15.3 per cent from 14.4pc in the first quarter.

But those figures significantly underestimate the impact of the virus on the Spanish job market which registered a 1.07 million drop in the number of people employed during the second quarter, the INE said.