Unemployment tops EU average

Malta's unemployment rate in April surpassed the EU average.

Figures published yesterday by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical arm, show that the rate increased over March reaching 8.5 per cent while the EU 25 average remained stable at 8.3 per cent.

Malta has the fifth largest unemployment rate in the EU. Poland tops the list with 16.5 per cent unemployment.

The island has seen its unemployment figures swell by 1.2 percentage points since April last year, when it was 7.3 per cent. During that period the average unemployment rate of the EU 25 contracted by 0.6 per cent.

In a year, Malta has seen one of the highest relative unemployment increases among the 25 EU member states. Other EU countries in a similar position are Cyprus (5.2 per cent in April last year to 6.3 per cent), Slovenia (6.2 per cent to seven per cent), the UK (4.6 per cent to 5.1 per cent) and Luxembourg (4.4 per cent to 4.8 per cent).

Eurostat figures show that there are about 18 million jobless within the EU.