Malta with its 5.7 per cent of unemployment was below the European Union unemployment line of 7.1 per cent, as figures published by EuroStat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, show.

The EU27 unemployment rate was at 7.1 per cent in October 2008, compared with 6.9 per cent of the same period last year.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (2.5 per cent), Austria (3.0 per cent) and Denmark (3.2 per cent), and the highest in Spain (12.8 per cent) and Slovakia (10.0 per cent).

The largest falls were observed in Poland (8.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent) and Austria (4.3 per cent to 3.0 per cent), and the highest increases in Spain (8.5 per cent to 12.8 per cent) and Estonia (4.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent).

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