* Jobless rises by 24,318 people in Nov vs Oct
* Most jobs lost from services sector
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MADRID, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of registered jobless in Spain rose for the fourth straight month in November, with most lay offs in the highly-seasonal service sector, the Labour Ministry said on Thursday.
Registered jobless rose 0.6 percent in November, or 24,318 workers, from a month earlier to 4.1 million, with service industries shedding over 15,000 people, while the recession-hit construction and industrial sectors took on new workers.
"This figure confirms that the rate of lay offs is falling, but in conjunction with the social security figures, we believe the unemployment rate will tick back above 20 percent in the fourth quarter," economist for Cortal Consors Estefania Ponte said.
The Ministry said the number of workers registered on the social security system dropped 1.3 percent year-on-year.
The unemployment rate, a quarterly figure calculated through a survey by the National Statistics Institute and considered more accurate than the Labour Ministry figures, was 19.8 percent in the third quarter.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union, according to Eurostat, more than double the 27-country average, with a burst property bubble and battered consumer confidence putting almost 3 million out of work since 2007.
The jobless increase was the lowest registered in November since 1998, the Ministry said.
"(This could be) interpreted as a normalisation of our jobs market," Labour Secretary Mari Luz Rodriguez said in a press release. (Reporting by Paul Day; editing by Chris Pizzey)