REGISTERED unemployment in Spain surpassed five million for the first time in February, government figures show, as the eurozone's fourth-largest economy contracted and the government imposed steep spending cuts.

The number of people registering for unemployment benefits rose 59,444 or 1.19 per cent from the previous month to 5,040,222 as companies in all areas of the economy continued to lay off staff, the labour ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The overall unemployment rate is released separately and quarterly. It stood at 26.02 per cent in the fourth quarter - the highest level since the rebirth of Spanish democracy after the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 - with 5.97 million people out of work.

This is higher than the number of people registering for benefits because some unemployed people's jobless benefit has run out.

Spain, once the motor of job creation in the eurozone, is in a double dip recession, having never recovered from the collapse of a property boom in 2008.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has imposed steep spending cuts and tax rises, aimed at saving 150 billion euros ($A192 billion) between 2012 and 2014, which have prompted mass street protests and added to job losses.

He has vowed to lower the public deficit from the equivalent of 9.4 per cent of gross domestic product last year to 2.8 per cent in 2014.

The Spanish economy contracted by 1.4 per cent in 2012 and the government expects it will shrink by 0.5 per cent this year before expanding by 1.2 per cent in 2014, a more optimistic forecast than those of most analysts and international organisations.