Lithuania’s jobless rate edged down by 0.1 percentage points in September from August, to 12.9 percent. A similar rate was posted by Bulgaria, which ranked eighth with the jobless rate of 12.4 percent.
The highest unemployment rates were recorded in Spain (25.8 pct) and Greece (25.1 pct in Jul). The jobless rate in Latvia stood at 15.9 percent in the second quarter.
However, unemployment in Lithuania, unlike many other high-unemployment countries, continued to fall at one of the highest annual rates. The country's jobless rate eased by 1.8 points in September year-on-year, which was the largest decrease in the EU.
A slightly smaller fall was observed in Estonia. However, this country only provides less recent unemployment data, as does Latvia. Estonia's unemployment rate fell by 1.4 points in August year-on-year, to 10 percent, from 11.4 percent.
The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in September, stable compared with August. Eurostat estimates that 25.751 million men and women in the EU27 were unemployed last month.
