Malta had the fifth lowest unemployment rate in the 17-member euro area at the end of June – even though more people were looking for a job when compared to May.

According to the EU’s statistics arm, the unemployment rate in Malta at the end of last month stood at 6.2 per cent, 0.2 per cent over the previous month but 0.5 per cent lower than a year earlier.

On a sectoral level, the highest jobless rate in June, 11.9 per cent, was among those aged under 25, two per cent below June 2011.

Unemployment among men stood at 5.9 per cent while women registering for work amounted to 6.7 per cent. Malta’s low unemployment levels contrasted sharply with the rest of the euro area, with the new data for June showing there was an average of five per cent more unemployed people there compared to Malta.

Eurostat said that overall unemployment in the euro area reached record levels in June, peaking to 11.2 per cent, an increase of 1.2 per cent in the past 12 months.

Among the euro area’s member states, the highest unemployment levels were reported in Spain (24.8 per cent) and Greece (22.5 per cent) and the lowest in Austria (4.5 per cent) and The Netherlands (5.1 per cent).

Compared with a year ago, Cyprus – a country usually compared to Malta in EU circles due to its size and economy – has seen its unemployment levels rise by a full three percentage points.

Eurostat said it estimated that more than 25 million men and women were unemployed in June.

Compared to a year earlier, unemployment in the EU rose by more than two million.