More part-timers

There were 144,576 people in employment at the end of last April, with the number of full-time workers dropping by 731 and the unemployment register having 396 more names on it than it did a year before.

The National Statistics Office said that out of a labour supply of 152,182, 7,606 people were registering for work.

Public and private sector jobs both dropped, by 377 and 354 respectively. In contrast to full-timers, the number of part-timers actually increased by 2,173, including a 3.6 per cent rise in the number of part-timers who also had a full-time job.

By region, employment in Malta dropped by 0.5 per cent in a year, whereas it increased by 0.1 per cent in Gozo.