Fewer than 3,000 people registered for work last December, new figures released today showed. 

The 2,912 figure achieved is the lowest since Malta started recording unemployment statistics in the 1960s, the government said in a statement. In December 2015, the figure stood at 4,615.

In a press release detailing the figures, the National Statistics Office found that registrants for work decreased irrespective of how long they had been registering. The largest decrease was recorded among persons who had been registering for over one year.

The largest decrease was recorded among persons who had been registering for over one year.

The number of persons with a disability who were registering for work also decreased by 44 to 354. Males accounted for 77.1 per cent of total registrants with a disability.

The largest share of males on the unemployment register sought occupations as craft and related trades workers (17.9 per cent) whereas the largest share of females on the unemployment register sought occupations as clerical support workers with 35.1 per cent.

The registered unemployment rate in June 2016 stood at 1.9 per cent of the labour supply, (excluding part-time employment), and varied from 2.2 per cent among men to 1.4 per cent among women.

Unemployment cut by 60 per cent - government 

In a statement highlighting the figures, the government said that unemployment now stood at 60 per cent of what it was at the start of this legislature. 

On average, the government said, every two days six people were finding work. This, the statement said, was in sharp contrast to results under the previous administration, when the number of unemployed people was on the increase.