Baltics again see largest drop in unemployment

TALLINN -- The Baltic States have for the second month running seen the EU's largest drop in unemployment rates.

Eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency, found in a report released on Aug. 31 that the three Baltic states have seen the best improvement in unemployment.

"The largest falls were observed in Estonia (17.9% to 12.8% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia
(19.9% to 16.2% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011) and Lithuania (18.2% to 15.6% between the second
quarters of 2010 and 2011)," the report said.

Despite the improvement, Latvia and Lithuania still reported the second and third highest overall unemployment rates, trailing only Spain.

Greece, Bulgaria and Slovenia had the largest increases in unemployment. In the EU as a whole unemployment stood at 9.5%.