Costa Rica has broken a long-held jobless rate streak that hovered around 6%, dropping to 4.8% last year, a United Nations agency reported.

Released Monday, the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 150-page regional “Labor Panorama” report crowned Costa Rica with the lowest unemployment rate in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Costa Rica's (economic) performance stands out among Central American countries and the rest of Latin America,” said Leonardo Ferreira, employment specialist for ILO's San José-based Sub-Regional Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

He went on to cite this country's recent success: 6.3% economic growth – above the Latin American average of 5.5%.

“This, of course, has had a positive effect on employment,” Ferreira said, calling Costa Rica's low joblessness number “an outstanding figure.”

Income among employed workers rose by 9.3% in 2007 and the majority – 73% – of posts held in 2007 were “quality” and “salary” jobs, he added, as opposed to freelance work or jobs with precarious conditions.

Perhaps more outstanding, this country's unemployment rate has dipped below Mexico's urban unemployment of 4.9%, which actually rose slightly from 4.6% in 2006.

Costa Rica's unemployment rate is also lower than that of the United States, 5% as of December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.N. employment agency's index covers up to September.