Registered unemployed stood at 7,401 in December, compared to 6,811 in the same month the previous year.
The National Statistics Office said that Employment and Training Corporation data for December indicated an increase of 665 persons registering under Part 1 and a drop of 75 among those registering under Part 2, when compared to the corresponding month in 2012.
Between December 2012 and December 2013, registered unemployment in Malta rose to 6,672, while that in Gozo went up to 729.
The number of registrants under the age of 25 accounted for 15.9 per cent of the total. Of these, 789 or 67.2 per cent, were males.
During the same period, the number of unemployed aged 45 and over stood at 3,100, 41.9 per cent of the total registered unemployed persons in December 2013.
The largest share of unemployed men were seeking occupations in services, crafts and related jobs, whereas women mostly sought clerical and technical and associated professional occupations.
Unemployment down by eight people a day - government
But in a statement the government said that unemployment had gone down by an average of eight people a day - from 7,639 in November to 7,401 in December.
It said that while the number of people registering for employment between March and December last year was stable, between December 2012 and last March - the last 90 days of the previous administration, the number increased from 6,811 to 7,350 - an average of six people a day.
The increase was in spite of the government taking on 710 new workers in the public sector. It also noted that between March and December 2008, the first nine months of the previous government, the number of people registering for employment had increased by 205.
Unemployment problem 'preoccupying' - PN
The Nationalist Party said that in spite of the Prime Minister’s efforts to hide the ever growing unemployment problem, the National Statistics Office was giving a completely different picture from that given by the Prime Minister, one was was preoccupying and that confirmed the need for immediate action.
The situation, the PN said, was alarming for those who had been unemployed for more than a year, the number of which had increased by 23 per cent.
The PN appealed to the government to immediately address the ever-growing problem of investment and unemployment by identifying the factors leading to these problems and reach agreements with the companies reducing workers to help them invest and employ more people.