Registered full-time employment increased by 4.2 per cent in May, when compared to the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Part-time employment as a primary job rose by 3.9 per cent. The NSO said that data provided by the Employment Training Centre, ETC, showed that, over a period of one year, the labour supply, excluding part-timers, reached 174,437. This was an increase of 2.9 per cent.

The increase was mainly attributed to an increase in the full-time gainfully occupied population, by 6,804, and a drop in registered unemployment, by 1,808, the NSO said.

Administrative and support activities contributed mostly to this increase. Registered full-time employment in the private sector went up by 6,421 persons to 125,087. Public sector full-time employment increased by 383 persons to 44,017.

Persons registered as full-time self-employed rose by 630 when compared to May 2014, while those registered as employees increased by 6,174. Full-time employment for males and females went up by 3.2 per cent and 5.9 per cent over 2014 levels.

Registered part-time employment went up by 4.7 per cent. The sectors that contributed most to the overall increase were wholesale and retail trade, followed by repair of motor vehicles.