Jobless exceed 7,500

Unemployment in November rose by 988 compared to the same period last year, official statistics show.

Information released by the National Statistics Office shows that in November there were 7,588 unemployed registered, 6,801 of whom were in Malta and 787 in Gozo.

In Malta, the number of unemployed rose by 15.9 per cent while Gozo saw a rise of 7.7 per cent. The increase mostly consisted of males, with 743 more men (up by 14.4 per cent) registering for unemployment and nearly 25 per cent of the unemployed were persons aged 45 and over.

In the 12 months to November, the number of people registering for work for under 20 weeks went up by 248 and there were 335 more people registering for at least one year.

Men were registering for trade and services work, while unemployed women were seeking clerical or service-oriented jobs.

The NSO also said that in July, the registered unemployment rate stood at 4.9 per cent, with unemployment for men being higher, at 5.6 per cent, when compared to the 3.6 per cent in the case of women.

Those who were unemployed for more than one year made up 1.6 per cent of the full-time workforce while youths under 25 were the group with the highest unemployment rate at 6.1 per cent.