Number of jobless down

A total of 7,953 unemployed persons were registering for work in August, a decrease of 178 over the preceding month, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

On an annual basis, the number of unemployed persons dropped by 99.

Those registering for work consisted of 6,346 males and 1,607 females.

Those registering under Part 1 of the unemployment register amounted to 7,186 whereas those registering under Part 2 amounted to 767.

The unemployment rates for August are not yet available since the data of the labour supply for this month have not yet been published.

The latest unemployment rate, for April, stood at 5.8 per cent of the labour supply. This figure translates into 6.5 per cent for men and four per cent for women.

In April, the long-term unemployment rate stood at 1.9 per cent, whereas the unemployment rate for persons who were 45 years and over stood at 4.5 per cent.

The unemployment rate among young persons stood at 8.8 per cent. The rate of unemployment among males younger than 25 was 10.5 per cent, while that of females was 6.6 per cent.