Eurostat put July unemployment at 7.3%

Unemployment in July stood at 7.3 per cent, the highest in the past 12 months, but Malta's figures were still lower than many of the other EU member states, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

Despite the global recession, Malta has the ninth lowest unemployment rate in the EU when compared to the other 26 member states.

In July, the highest unemployment rates were registered in Spain (18.5 per cent), Latvia (17.4 per cent) and Lithuania (16.7 per cent). On the other side of the scale, The Netherlands was performing the best with an unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent.

Over the past year, all EU member states registered an increase in unemployment reflecting the slowdown in economic activity across the globe.

Malta's unemployment rate rose by 1.4 per cent in the past year, up from 5.9 per cent in July 2008.

Youths or those under 25 were the worst hit with figures surging from 12.2 per cent in July 2008 to 15.1 per cent.

The situation was much worse in the eurozone with unemployment figures rising by two percentage points over the 12-month period. Last July, unemployment in the 16-member euro area stood at 9.5 per cent.

Eurostat estimates that 21.7 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15 million were in the euro area, were unemployed last July. Compared with June, the number of persons unemployed increased by 225,000 in the EU27 and by 167,000 in the euro area.

Compared with July 2008, unemployment went up by 5.1 million in the EU27 and by 3.2 million in the euro area.