June sees rise in employment

The number of the full-time gainfully occupied rose by 540 persons this June over the previous month, according to the National Statistics Office's latest available data.

Over a period of 12 months, from June 2003 to June 2004, the full-time gainfully occupied population dropped by 810 persons.

In the month under review, employment in the private direct production sector increased by 165 persons in comparison to May 2004. In relation to the same month in the previous year, the number of full-time gainfully occupied persons in the private direct production sector decreased by 872 persons.

Employment in the manufacturing sector increased by 152 in June 2004 over the preceding month. The private market services sector increased its employment levels by 484 persons in June 2004 in comparison to May 2004.

There was an increase of 637 persons employed in the private market services sector on a year-to-year basis. In June 2004, hotels and catering establishments increased 222 full-time employed persons. The wholesale and retail trade sub-sector increased 110 persons in its full-time employment complement over the previous month.

A drop of 100 employees in the public sector was recorded this June. On a year-to-year basis, the public sector decreased by 487 employees.

In June this year, there were 20,667 persons with part-time jobs as their primary occupation. On the other hand, there were 15,943 persons who held a part-time job in addition to their full-time employment. In total there are 36,610 part-time jobs in the labour market.

From June 2003 to June 2004, those holding a part-time job as their primary occupation increased by 1,984 (10.6 per cent). On the other hand, the other persons who held a part-time job in addition to their full-time employment increased by 785 in the 12 months to June 2004 (5.2 per cent).

In June 2004, there were 7,942 registered unemployed with the Employment and Training Corporation, which translates to 5.5 per cent of the labour supply. The registered unemployment rate for men stood at 6.2 per cent and that for women stood at 3.6 per cent.