Full-time employment in December increased by 3.3 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2012, according to the National Statistics Office.
The NSO said Employment and Training Corporation figures showed that over one year, the labour supply increased by 3.5 per cent, reaching 165,064.
This was mainly attributed to increases in the full-time gainfully occupied population of 4,981 and in the registered unemployed of 590.
In the month under review, increases in full-time employment within the private sector were recorded in administrative and support services activities and in professional, scientific and technical activities.
The private sector registered drops in employment in construction.
Within the public sector, a shift in employment was registered from construction to public administration and defence; compulsory social security.
Full-time self-employed rose by 365 when compared to December 2012.
During the same period, the number of employees increased by 4,616. Male and female full-time employment went up by 1.9 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively over 2012.
Registered part-time employment for the month under review went up by 4.1 per cent when compared to 2012 levels.
In December 2013, the number of part-timers who also held a full-time job amounted to 24,156; an increase of nearly three per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2012. Compared to December last year, employed persons whose part-time job was their primary occupation totalled 33,231 persons; an increase of five per cent.
STATISTICS CONFIRM NOT ENOUGH JOBS BEING CREATED - PN
In a statement, the Nationalist Party said the statistics confirmed the European Commission's and Nationalist Party’s warnings about job creation, including that not enough jobs were being created for all those seeking employment and that unemployment increased when compared to the same period last year.
The PN said the statistics confirmed that from December last year to last December, the number of unemployed had increased by 590 (nine per cent).
While the Nationalist Party welcomed the 3.2 per cent increase in jobs, the increased in unemployment showed that not enough jobs were being created for people who wanted to work. Of greater concern was the fact that the European Commission was forecasting that job creation this year would go down to 2.1 per cent.
The PN said that the Labour government was hiding the job creation problem by increasing jobs in the civil service for those within its core.
Civil service jobs increased by 1,411 - from 41,010 in December last year to 42,421 last December.