Malta ended the year with an unemployment rate of 7.2 per cent, slightly up from November but still below the record 10 per cent average in the eurozone.

The rate in December was up by 0.2 per cent over November and one per cent over December 2008, according to new figures published yesterday by the EU's statistics office in Brussels.

The highest rate was registered among youth (under 25), at 14.4 per cent, a substantial increase over the November figure of 13.9 per cent.

The number of women looking for a job rose to 7.9 per cent, up from 7.7 per cent in November, and the number of unemployed men stood at 6.9 per cent.

Malta's unemployment in December was the sixth lowest in the EU.

Unemployment in the eurozone hit the 10 per cent mark, a record since the creation of the euro club. It stood at 8.2 per cent in December 2008.

The lowest rates were recorded in The Netherlands (four per cent) and Austria (5.4 per cent) and the highest rates were in Latvia (22.8 per cent) and Spain (19.5 per cent).

Every EU member state recorded an increase in its unemployment rate compared to a year earlier. The highest increases were seen in Latvia (11.2 to 22.8 per cent), Estonia (6.5 to 15.2 per cent) and Lithuania (6.5 to 14.6 per cent).