The most recent figures published by Eurostat show that Malta has regained its fourth place amongst the EU28 for the lowest unemployment rate. Currently, Malta holds this position with Luxembourg and Austria as all three countries recorded an unemployment rate of 5.7%.
Malta was only surpassed by top performers Germany and the UK who registered the lowest unemployment rates across the region. Germany achieved the lowest employment rate, recorded at 4.7% in April 2015. The seasonally-adjusted figures standing for the unemployment rate across the euro area also show an overall improvement.
The unemployment rate in April 2015 was recorded at 11.1%, down from 11.2% in March 2015 and 11.7% in April of the previous year – a decrease of 0.6% over the period of one year. The EU28 area also experienced an improvement as figures showed that the unemployment rate of 10.3% recorded in April of last year stood at 9.7% in April of this year.
More specifically, Eurostat registered approximately 23.504 million people across the EU28, out of whom 17.846 million are based in the Eurozone who were unemployed in April 2015. Compared with figures from March of 2015, the number of unemployed people decreased by 126,000 across the 28 member states and 130,000 in the euro area.
Over the period April 2014 – April 2015, the number of unemployed people went down by 1.545 million across the EU28 and 849,000 in the euro area.
Compared to April of last year, unemployment in April 2015 was registered to have fallen in 22 member states and increased in 6. The highest unemployment rates as recorded in April of this year were being experienced by Greece (25.4%) and Spain (22.7%).
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