Employment up by 1.7% compared to 2012

Statistics issued by Eurostat confirmed that the rate of employment during the third quarter of this year increased by 1.7% when compared to the same period last year.

Data comparing the third quarter with second quarter 2013 was not available.

In a statement, the government said the information issued by the statistical office of the European Union "confirmed that the government's strategy for work creation was coming to fruition".

"The increase registered by Malta was the third highest across the European Union, only surpassed by Ireland and Luxembourg," the government said in a statement.

It said the result was significant when compared to the euro area's average growth that stood at 0.8%. Other 13 member states, the government said, registered a decrease.

Generally speaking the number of persons employed remained stable across the euro area and the EU28. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment fell by 0.8% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU28 in the third quarter of 2013.

Eurostat estimates that, in the third quarter of 2013, 223.2 million men and women were employed in the EU28, of which 145.0 million were in the euro area. These figures are seasonally adjusted.