More than one in five people registering for work in September last year was no longer seeking employment last month, the National Statistics Office said.

It said in a statement there were 2,472 people registering for work in September, 22.9% less than in the same month last year.

The NSO said that according to data provided by Jobsplus, registered unemployed males dropped among all age groups, while registered unemployed females increased among those younger than 20.

Registrants for work decreased when compared to September 2016, irrespective of how long they had been registering. The only increase was recorded among women registering for over one year. The largest decrease was among persons who had been registering for less than 21 weeks.

The number of persons with a disability registering for work also dropped by 85 when compared to the previous year, reaching 290. Men accounted for 76.6% of total registrants with a disability.

The largest share of men and women on the unemployment register sought occupations as clerical support workers with 19.5% and 37.3% respectively.

The registered unemployment rate in March stood at 1.4% of the labour supply, excluding part-time employment, and varied from 1.6% among men to 1% among women.