Baltics doing well on unemployment

EU -- Allthree Baltic states have unemployment levels significantly below the Europeanaverage according to latest official statistics from Eurostat, the statisticaloffice of the European Communities.

InNovember 2007, unemployment stood at 4.0% in Lithuania, 5.2% in Estonia and 5.4% in Latvia. The average rate amongall 27 EU member states was 6.9%.

Theleast unemployment was seen in the Netherlands, where just 2.9% of potentialworkers were without jobs. At the other end of the scale, Slovakia recorded the highestrate of unemployment at 11.0%, despite its booming economy.

Thelargest relative falls were observed in Poland (12.2% to 8.5%) and Bulgaria (8.2% to 5.8%).Increases were registered in Portugal and Ireland.

In November 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.7% inthe USA and 3.8% in Japan.