Unemployment up by 0.4% in April

Unemployment in April has increased by 0.4%  when compared to the same month in 2013, Eurostat figures issued today show.

In April, unemployment in Malta stood at 6.8%, up from 6.4% in the corresponding month last year. The rate dropped by 0.1% when compared to the first three months of 2014.

The Eurostat figures show that Malta’s unemployment rate is below the EU28 average which stands at 10.4%. Malta’s rate is also below the average rate in the eurozone, which stands at 11.7%.

On a positive note, youth unemployment in Malta dropped by 0.9% when compared to the same month last year. In April 2014 the rate of unemployed persons under 25 stood at 12.7%, down from 13.6 in April 2013.

Unemployment in the euro area went down from 11.8% in March 2014, and from 12.0% in April 2013.

The EU28 unemployment rate also dropped when compared to March 2014, when the rate stood at 10.5%, and April 2013 (10.9%).

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, published these figures today. It estimates that 25.471 million persons in the EU28, of whom 18.751 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in April 2014.

Compared with April 2013, unemployment fell by 1.167 million in the EU28 and by 487 000 in the euro area.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9%), Germany (5.2%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (26.5% in February 2014) and Spain (25.1%).

Compared to a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eighteen Member States, remained stable in two and increased in eight.

The largest decreases were registered in Hungary (10.6% to 7.8% between March 2013 and March 2014), Portugal (17.3% to 14.6%) and Ireland (13.7% to 11.9%), and the highest increases in Cyprus (15.6% to 16.4%) and the Netherlands (6.5% to 7.2%).

In April 2014, the unemployment rate in the United States was 6.3%, down from 6.7% in March 2014, and from 7.5% in April 2013.

Youth unemployment

In April 2014, 5.259 million young persons under the age of 25 were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.381 million were in the euro area.

Compared with April 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 415,000 in the EU28 and by
202,000 in the euro area.

In April 2014, the youth unemployment rate was 22.5% in the EU28 and 23.5% in the euro area, compared with 23.6% and 23.9% respectively in April 2013.

In April 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.9%), Austria (9.5%) and the Netherlands (11.0%), and the highest in Greece (56.9% in February 2014), Spain (53.5%) and Croatia (49.0% in the first quarter of 2014).