The news services reported last week that according to Eurostat, Malta is now in the second lowest place as regards lowest unemployment in Europe.
But the news reports did not also mention that Malta has now overtaken Germany, which is now in the third place, and that Malta is within reach of the top place, seeing that the Czech Republic, the country with the lowest unemployment in May, is just 0.1% below Malta (4.0% against 4.1%).
The highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece (24.1% in March 2016) and Spain (19.8%).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate in May fell in twenty-six Member States, remained stable in
Latvia and increased in
Austria (from 5.9% to 6.1%). The largest decreases were registered in
Cyprus (from 15.3% to 12.0%),
Croatia (from 16.2% to 13.3%),
Bulgaria (from 10.0% to 7.3%) and
Spain (from 22.5% to 19.8%).