Malta has experienced a slight drop in unemployment in October, according to the latest figures published by Eurostat.

The number of people without a job in Malta dropped to seven per cent in October from 7.2 per cent in September. Within the eurozone, unemployment remained static at 9.8 per cent.

Eurostat said that, despite the recession, Malta's unemployment continued to be below the eurozone average, signalling that the island was weathering the economic storm better.

The biggest drop in October was registered among those under-25 where the number of job seekers fell to 14.1 per cent from 14.7 per cent in September.

The figures for jobless males also declined to 6.5 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the previous month and the number of job-hunting females remained unchanged at eight per cent.

On an EU level, Eurostat estimated that 22.5 million men and women, of whom 15.5 million were in the eurozone, were unemployed in October.

Compared with September, the number of unemployed rose by 258,000 in the EU27 and by 134,000 in the eurozone. Compared to October 2008, unemployment went up by a staggering five million in the EU27 and by 3.1 million in the eurozone.

Among member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (3.7 per cent) and Austria (4.7 per cent) with the highest rates in Latvia (20.9 per cent) and Spain (19.3 per cent).

Compared with a year ago, all member states recorded an increase in their unemployment rate. The smallest increases were observed in Germany (7.1 to 7.5 per cent), Austria (4.0 to 4.7 per cent) and Romania (5.7 to 6.4 per cent). The highest increases were registered in Latvia (9.1 to 20.9 per cent) and Lithuania (4.8 to 13.8 per cent).