Economic growth is leading to record employment figures, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said today.

“Economic growth is generating employment and there is a fairer distribution of income,” Mr Bartolo told a press conference held jointly with Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis.

The National Statistics Office today said that unemployment in August had fallen to 3,261 from 4,914 in the same month last year. Overall, decreases were recorded among all age groups.

Mr Bartolo said those at risk of social exclusion were finding work thanks to social benefits reforms which pushed more people to join the labour market.

He said measures such as free childcare and in employment benefits were encouraging more people, especially women, to join the workforce.

Disabled people, and idle youths were also joining the labour force. Many of these would not have been registered as unemployed and so were an added success.

According to the NSO data, the number of people registering for work had decreased irrespective of how long they had been registering, but the largest decrease was recorded among persons who had been registering for more than a year.