Rates remain high in Italy and Spain. - For the first time since February, unemployment rose slightly in Spain in August, taking the number of job seekers to almost 4.43 million, according to the latest figures released by the Spanish Employment Ministry. August sees the end of seasonal employment and is traditionally bad for employment in Spain. Unemployment rates have always increased in this period since 2000, with the exception of last year. At the end of August, there were 4,427,930 people unemployed in Spain, 8,070 more than the previous month, the Ministry states. However, compared with last year, the number of people seeking employment has fallen by 270,853, according to the Spanish Ministry. In Italy, the unemployment rate dropped in August compared with the previous month, to 12.3% of the working-age population, down 0.3% from July, according to provisional figures published by the national statistics institute, Istat. Among young people aged 15-24, unemployment rose by one point compared with July to 44.2%. (IL)