The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday predicted that unemployment in Spain along with Greece would remain the highest in the 34 industrialized countries that make up the OECD, and called for safety-net systems for the long-term unemployed no longer entitled to unemployment benefits to be beefed up.

The number of people out of work in Spain has risen by more than four million since the start of the crisis in 2008 to over six million, and by 11 million in the OECD to 48 million.

In its Employment Outlook for 2013, the Paris-based multilateral agency said it expected the harmonized rate of unemployment in Spain to continue to move above the 26.9 percent posted in May, just below Greece at 27 percent, to around 28 percent in 2014 — well above the OECD’s current level of 8.0 percent. By contrast, it expects the rate in the OECD to fall to 7.8 percent.