Number of jobless falls to just over 6,000

The number of people registered as unemployed last month dropped by 8.5 per cent compared to the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

There are now 6,018 people registered unemployed, down by 562.

Over the past 12 months there has been a decline in unemployment across all age groups except those aged over 45. However, the NSO said, their overall unemployment rate of 3.8 per cent is lower than the under 25s, whose unemployment rate stood at 5.1 per cent for the same month. There has also been a reduction in the number of long-term unemployed and the NSO pointed out that unemployed men tend to seek low-skilled jobs in industrial sector whereas most women look for work in the clerical or service sector. Last January, the registered unemployment rate stood at 4.3 per cent of the labour supply.

The long-term unemployment rate, identifying people who have been registered for more than 12 months, stood at 1.5 per cent at the beginning of the year.