At the end of August there were 7,177 unemployed persons registering for work under Part 1 and Part 2 of the unemployment register, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office.

Of these, 5,571 or 77.6 per cent were men and 1,606 or 22.4 per cent were women.

The number of registered unemployed increased by 86 over the preceding month but there was a drop of 776 compared to the same month last year.

A total of 3,019 persons (42.1 per cent) of those registering for work were under 30 and 1,954 (27.2 per cent) were aged 45 and over.

A total of 3,124 persons (43.5 per cent) had been registering for work for under 20 weeks and 2,674 (37.3 per cent) for 53 weeks and over.

The unemployment rate for February stood at 5.6 per cent of the labour supply. The rate for men was 6.2 per cent whereas that of women was four per cent.

In February, the long-term unemployment rate stood at 2.1 per cent whereas the unemployment rate for persons who were 45 years and over stood at 4.4 per cent. The unemployment rate among young people was eight per cent.