Unemployment continued to increase in February with the number of registered jobless surpassing the 7,000 mark.

The second month of the year saw unemployment rise by 759 persons over the same period a year before, an upward movement of 12 per cent.

Data published by the National Statistics Office yesterday showed that in February 7,101 persons were registering for work with the Employment and Training Corporation.

This also represents an increase of 1.6 per cent over the previous month when 6,988 persons were registering for work.

Unemployment has been on a steady monthly rise since December when 6,373 persons were registered with the ETC.

The statistics show that among unemployed men the most common sought jobs are elementary duties and services whereas women tended to seek clerical and service-oriented jobs.

Numbering 2,456, the over 45-year-olds formed the largest group of unemployed people. The second largest group, numbering 2,228 were people aged between 30 and 44 years.

The NSO said the unemployment rate was not published because information on labour supply for the month of February was unavailable.