Malta's unemployment rate is the second-lowest across the Euro area, the latest Eurostat figures have shown. 

At 4.1 per cent, local unemployment is a shade higher than the Czech Republic's 4 per cent figure and but six times lower than that in Greece, which has a Eurozone-high unemployment rate of 24.1 per cent. 

Unemployment in the Euro area as a whole fell to 10.1 per cent in May - the lowest figure since July 2011 and down from 11 per cent in May 2015.

Across the EU's entire 28 member states, unemployment stood at 8.6 per cent, down from 9.6 per cent in May 2015 and the lowest unemployment figure since March 2009. 

Unemployment fell in 26 member states, remained stable in Latvia and rose in Austria. The largest decreases were registered in Cyprus (down to 12 per cent from 15.3 per cent in May 2015), Croatia (from 16.2 per cent to 13.3 per cent), Bulgaria (from 10 per cent to 7.3 per cent) and Spain (from 22.5 per cent to 19.8 per cent.) 

Eurostat estimated that 21.084 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 16.267 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in May 2016. Compared with April 2016, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 96,000 in the EU28 and by 112,000 in the euro area. Compared with May 2015, unemployment fell by 2.166 million in the EU28 and by 1.440 million in the euro area.