RIGA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Unemployment in recession-hit Latvia rose in the third quarter to 18.4 percent from 16.7 percent in the previous three months and from 7.2 percent in the same period of 2008, the statistics office said on Friday.
The figure was the worst quarterly level since the data became available in 2002, and approached the 1996 annual level of 20.7 percent, just a few years after Latvia had emerged as an economically shattered nation from Soviet rule.
Latvia is suffering one of the worst recessions in the European Union and is dependent on a 7.5 billion euro ($11.2 billion) European Union and International Monetary Fund rescue to avoid bankruptcy and possible devaluation.
"Unfortunately this number will rise further and could reach 20 or 21 percent in the fourth quarter or first quarter of 2010," said SEB bank chief economist Andris Vilks.
He said budget cuts under the IMF and EU programme meant that the public sector would swell the jobless ranks.
This trend would be partly balanced Latvians leaving their country to find work abroad, he said.
He saw the jobless rate at 17 or 18 percent by the end of 2010 and only beginning to decrease substantially in 2011.
The statistics office, giving figures based on a survey of 6,000 households, said the number of jobless had risen to 214,900 people from 199,700 in the third quarter.
(Reporting by Patrick Lannin, editing by Mike Peacock) ($1=.6722 Euro) Keywords: LATVIA JOBLESS/

(Riga newsroom, patrick.lannin@reuters.com, patrick.lannin.reuters.com@reuters.net, +371 29 269 191)

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