Although Spain is maintaining its position as one of the most economically productive countries in Europe, it also now holds the second-highest rate of unemployment. The European Union's statistics office, 'Eurostat,' released figures stating that 8.8 percent of Spain's economically active population was out of work during January. During this month, the number of applications for unemployment benefit rose by 132,378 on the figure released for December. This left Spain in second place in the unemployment stakes, following closely behind Slovakia within the European community. The average unemployment level was recorded as 6.8 percent within the EU and 7.1 percent throughout the European continent. Spain was also among the countries which experienced a substantial deterioration in its labour market over the past 12 month period, rising by 0.6 points in comparison to the same period last year. It is suggested that one of the reasons for this slide has been the slow down in the labour market, which in turn affected construction and related industries.