Malta no longer has the lowest unemployment rate across the EU, statistics for August issued yesterday show, with the rate going up to 4.8 per cent.

In June and July, Malta had recorded the lowest unemployment rates, however in August lower rates were recorded in the Czech Republic and in Germany, Eurostat figures show. In the previous months the figures stood at four per cent (June) and 3.9 per cent (July).

According to Eurostat, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.1 per cent in August, stable when compared to July and down from 10.7 per cent when compared to the same month last year. This remained the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since July 2011.

The euro rate was 10.1 per cent in August

The data also shows that the EU28 unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent in August, stable when compared to the previous month.

The figure has also gone down from 9.3 per cent in the same month last year.

This was the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since March 2009, the Eurostat said.

The Eurostat estimates that 20.973 million people in the EU28, of whom 16.3 million are in the euro area, were unemployed in August.

Compared with the previous month, the number of unemployed decreased by 40,000 in the EU28, while it increased by 8,000 in the euro area.

In August, there were 4.1 million young people under the age of 25 who were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 2.9 million were in the euro area, Eurostat said.

Compared with August last year, youth unemployment decreased by 381,000 in the EU28 and by 209,000 in the euro area.

In August, the youth unemployment rate was 18.6 per cent in the EU28 and 20.7 per cent in the euro area, compared with 20.1 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively during the same month last year.