Malta’s unemployment stands at 6.2%, below the 9.9% Eurozone average

The eurozone’s average unemployment rate stood at 9.9% in June 2011, unchanged as from the previous month, while the European Union average stood at 9.4%, also unchanged from May.

1 August 2011, 12:00am

2 min read

The eurozone’s unemployment figure stood at 10.2% in June 2010, while that of the European Union stood at 9.7%, according to EUROSTAT figures.

Malta’s own unemployment rate of 6.2% falls within the bottom five bracket among European Member States.

Austria had the lowest unemployment rate with 4%, followed by the Netherlands with 4.1%, Luxembourg with 4.5%, and Denmark with 6.1%.

Eurostat estimates that 22.473 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.640 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in June 2011. Compared with May 2011, the number of persons unemployed fell by 38 000 in the EU27 but increased by 18 000 in the euro area. Compared with June 2010⁵, unemployment decreased by 706 000 in the EU27 and by 346 000 in the euro area.

The highest unemployment rates were recorded in Spain (21.0%), Lithuania (16.3% in the first quarter of 2011)and Latvia (16.2% in the first quarter of 2011).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in nineteen Member States, increased in seven and remained stable in Luxembourg.

The largest falls were observed in Estonia (18.8% to 13.8% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (19.9% to 16.2% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011) and Hungary (11.3% to 9.9%).

Thehighest increases were registered in Greece (11.0% to 15.0% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Bulgaria (10.1% to 11.4%), Cyprus (6.5% to 7.6%) and Slovenia (7.3% to 8.4%).

Between June 2010 and June 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 10.0% to 9.6% in the euro area and from 9.7% to 9.2% in the EU27.

The female unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.3% in the euro area and decreased from 9.6% to 9.5% in the EU27.

In June 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 20.3% in the euro area and 20.5% in the EU27. In June 2010 it was 20.9% and 21.0% respectively.

The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (7.1%),Austria (8.2%) and Germany (9.1%) and the highest in Spain (45.7%), Greece (38.5% in the first quarter of 2011), Slovakia (33.3%) and Lithuania (32.6% in the first quarter of 2011).

In June 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.2% in the USA. In May 2011, it was 4.5% in Japan.