In the euro area, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.2% last month compared to March and dropped from 11% compared to April 2015, Eurostat said in a statement on its website on Tuesday. In the EU, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.7% from 8.8% in March and 9.6% in April last year.

Cyprus’ drop in the unemployment rate by 4.1 percentage points in a year was the most extensive in both the euro area and the European Union, Eurostat said. The number of jobseekers in Cyprus fell in April to 47,000 from 49,000 in March and 68,000 in April 2015, Eurostat said.

Bulgaria and Spain, which saw in April their respective rates drop by 2.9 and 2.6 percentage points in a year to 7.1% and 20.1% followed Cyprus, Eurostat said. The jobless rate in Estonia and Latvia rose from 6.7% to 6.8% and 9.5% to 9.6% respectively.

Greece’s 24.2% unemployment rate from February, the latest available, was the highest in the EU, followed by the April figures of Spain, Croatia’s 14.6%, Portugal’s 12% and Italy’s 11.7%, Eurostat said. The Czech Republic, Germany and Malta reported the lowest rates in April which stood at 4.1%, 4.2% and 4.3%.

Still, the youth unemployment rate in Cyprus remained at 27.7% in March, the latest available figure, unchanged compared to February and down from 32.6% in April 2015, Eurostat said. The unemployment rate among men fell to 11.8% in April from 12.5% in March and among women to 11.3% from 11.6%.

Source: Cyprus Mail