Registered full-time employment increased by four per cent in March while part-time employment as a primary job increased by 6.2 per cent when compared to the same month the previous year.

The NSO said that according to administrative data provided by JobsPlus showed that over a period of one year, the labour supply excluding part-timers increased by 2.8 per cent, reaching 180,401.

This was mainly attributed to an increase in the full-time gainfully occupied population (6,803) and a drop in registered unemployment (1,861).

Registered full-time employment in the private sector went up by 6,513 persons to 132,017. Public sector full-time employment increased by 290 persons to 44,351.

The number of persons registered as full-time self-employed rose by 398 when compared to March 2015, while the number of persons registered as employees increased by 6,405.

Full-time employment for males and females went up by 2.9 per cent and 5.9 per cent respectively over 2015 levels.

Registered part-time employment in March 2016 went up by 6.3 per cent when compared to a year earlier.

The number of part-timers who also held a full-time job amounted to 24,245 up by 6.5 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2015. Employed persons whose part-time job was their primary occupation totalled 34,798, up by 6.2 per cent or 2,024 persons when compared to 2015.