Unemployment falls again

Malta continued to register a good unemployment performance in the EU, further lowering its overall rates, according to Eurostat.

The latest data issued in Brussels show that in March, Malta’s unemployment rate fell to 6.3 per cent, 0.1 per cent lower than the previous month. In March 2010, Malta’s unemployment rate stood at 7.1 per cent. Eurostat said Malta continued to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the eurozone which last month stood at an average of 9.9 per cent, the same as in February 2011.

The new data shows that compared to February, the number of unemployed in Malta fell mostly among the under-25s, to 11 per cent in March from 11.6 per cent in February. Slight decreases of 0.1 per cent were also observed among the males and females trying to find work.

On a general EU level Eurostat said the lowest unemployment rates last March were recorded in the Netherlands (4.2 per cent), Austria (4.3 per cent) and Luxembourg (4.5 per cent), and the highest in Spain (20.7 per cent), Lithuania (17.3 per cent) and Latvia (17.2 per cent).