Greece’s unemployment rate rose to a record in April as the economy struggled to emerge from a six-year slump deepened by government spending cuts.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 26.9 percent from 26.8 percent in March, the Athens-based Hellenic Statistical Authority said in an e-mailed statement today. That’s in line with the median estimate of three economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The rate is the highest since the agency began publishing monthly data in 2004.

The recession in Greece, which was shut out of bond markets in 2010, has been amplified by austerity measures linked to 240 billion euros ($313 billion) of loans from the euro area and International Monetary Fund. Gross domestic product fell 6.4 percent in 2012 and the IMF forecasts it will drop 4.2 percent this year before output expands 0.6 percent in 2014.

The unemployment rate for Greeks between the age of 15 and 24 was 57.5 percent, while total female joblessness stood at 30.5 percent. The region with the highest unemployment rate was Epirus-western Macedonia, where 30.2 percent were out of work.