Baltics struggle with unemployment

  • 2010-04-06
  • Oskars Magone

The unemployment rate in the Baltic States are still among the highest in the EU, but at least now there are signs that the increase is beginning to abate.

TALLINN -- The latest information from eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency, has found that the Baltics still lead the EU in terms of unemployment.

At 21.7%, eurostat found that Latvia for the sixth month in a row has the highest unemployment rate in the EU.

The next highest unemployment rates in February were registered in Spain (19%), Lithuania (15.8%), Estonia (15.5% – third quarter), Slovakia (14.2%) and Ireland (13.2%).

Despite this, local statistics agencies have reported a slight decrease in the unemployment rate, possibly indicating that the downward spiral of unemploymnet is finally coming to a close.

Estonia reported the first weekly decline in unemployment since the beginning of the crisis, with more than 180 being struck from the list. The Latvian national employment agency likewise found that the first week of April saw a slight decline in the unemployment rate, especially in rural areas.

The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4%), Austria (5%), Luxembourg (5.5%), Cyprus (6.3%), Slovenia (6.1%), and Malta (7.1%).

The average seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the 27 European Union (EU) member states was 9.6% February, compared with 9.5% in January. The unemployment rate in the eurozone also crossed the 10% mark, up 0.1% from January.