Baltics doing well on unemployment

The Baltic Times
Mike Collier
January 9, 2008


EU -- All three Baltic states have unemployment levels significantly below the European average according to latest official statistics from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Communities.

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

The least unemployment was seen in the Netherlands, where just 2.9% of potential workers were without jobs. At the other end of the scale, Slovakia recorded the highest rate of unemployment at 11.0%, despite its booming economy.

The largest 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% in the USA and 3.8% in Japan.