LITHUANIA: Unemployment recedes to 15.4% in 2011
17.02.2012, 12:14In 2011, unemployment in Lithuania receded to 15.4% from an all-time high of 17.8% in 2010, the national statistics department LSD reports.
Unemployment shrank faster for men, by 3.4 percentage points, than for women, 1.4 pp. However, male joblessness remained considerably higher - 17.8% vs. 13.0% for women. In total, 249,000 people did not have jobs, down by 14% y/y.
The 15-64 age group employment rate also went up to 60.7% from 57.8% in 2010 thanks to more working-age people finding a job (and fewer losing it) but also due to a 1% fall in labour force to 1.62m, a three-year low, the result of net labour emigration and the negative birth/death rate.
In Q4 2011, the unemployment rate was at the year's lowest, 13.9%.
Unemployment rate in Lithuania:
2011: 15.4%
2010: 17.8%
2009: 13.7%
2008: 5.8%
2007: 4.3%
2006: 5.6%