Unemployment down in January

In January, the number of persons registering for work stood at 4,710 compared to 6,384 in the corresponding month last year.

Data provided by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) for January indicate a decrease of 1,602 persons registering under Part I and a decrease of 72 among those registering under Part II of the unemployment register, when compared to January 2015. Overall, decreases in registered unemployment were recorded among all age groups.

When compared to January last year, registrants for work decreased irrespective of how long they had been registering. The largest decrease was recorded among persons who had been registering for over one year. The number of persons with a disability who were registering for work also decreased by 156 to 391. Males accounted for 78.8 per cent of total registrants with a disability.

The largest share of males on the unemployment register sought occupations as crafts and related trade workers (17.7 per cent), whereas their female counterparts mostly sought occupations as clerical support workers (29.1 per cent).

The registered unemployment rate in August 2015 stood at 2.8 per cent of the labour supply, (excluding part-time employment), and varied from 3.2 per cent among men to 2.0 per cent among women.