During January there were 8,180 unemployed persons registering for work, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Of these, 6,523, or 79.7 per cent, were men and 1,657 or 20.3 per cent were women. This means the number of registered unemployed increased by 77 over the preceding month.

On an annual basis, there was a decrease of 614 persons on the unemployment register.

Of the registered unemployed, 41.7 per cent are under 30 years old while 27.8 per cent are over 45.

The unemployment rate for last month is not available since the data on the labour supply for this month has not yet been published.

The unemployment rate for September 2004 stood at 5.6 per cent of the labour supply. The rate for men was 6.3 per cent whereas that of women was 3.9 per cent.

In September 2004, the long-term unemployment rate stood at two per cent, whereas the unemployment rate for persons aged 45 and over stood at 4.4 per cent.