Malta's unemployment is up but still far below the eurozone average which hit a 10-year high at 9.2 per cent this April.

The latest figures show that while Malta's unemployment in April rose to 6.8 per cent, almost one percentage point over the same month last year, the eurozone average is up two per cent over a year ago.

Malta's jobless rate in April was the highest since April 2008 when Malta only had 5.9 per cent unemployment. The under 25-year olds seem to be the worst hit.

At 14.5 per cent of this age group unemployed, the statistics show a significant increase of 2.7 per cent in this category over a year ago.

Female unemployment increased from 5.5 to 6.6 per cent while unemployment among males was 7.6 per cent, up from 6.6 per cent 12 months earlier.

The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (three per cent) and Austria (4.2 per cent), and the highest rates in Spain (18.1 per cent), Latvia (17.4 per cent) and Lithuania (16.8 per cent).

Compared to a year ago, only two member states recorded a drop in their unemployment rate while 25 member states saw an increase.

The falls were seen in Romania (6.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent) and Greece (7.9 to 7.8 per cent). The highest increases were registered in Lithuania (4.3 to 16.8 per cent), Latvia (6.1 to 17.4 per cent) and Estonia (3.7 to 13.9 per cent).

In April, Malta had the 10th highest level of unemployment among the 27 EU member states.