VILNIUS (AFP) -- The unemployment rate in Lithuania grew by 0.2 percent in January compared with the previous month, reaching 3.9 percent of the workforce, the national labor bureau said on Tuesday.

Compared with the same month in 2006, however, the jobless rate was down by 0.2 percent, the report added.

A total of 82,742 people in the Baltic state were registered as unemployed on February 1.

Lithuania, which has a population of 3.4 million people, joined the European Union in 2004.