Estonia sees EU's largest drop in unemployment

TALLINN -- Estonia has enjoyed the largest decrease in unemployment in the EU, reported Eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency.

Estonian unemployment fell from 18.8% to 13.8% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011. Latvia saw the second largest decrease, falling from 19.9% to 16.2%.

On a less optimistic note, Lithuania and Latvia had the second and third highest unemployment rates in the EU. Lithuania's rate was slightly above Latvia's at 16.3%, but still far behind Spain's figure of 21%.

The lowest unemployment rates, meanwhile, were recorded in Austria (4.0%), the Netherlands (4.1%) and Luxembourg (4.5%).

Overall, the unemploymnet rate in the EU27 stood at 9.4%, down 0.3% from last year. In the eurozone the rate was slightly higher at 9.9%, also down 0.3% from last year.

A full version of the report can be found here.