In February, the number of persons registering for work stood at 6,190 compared to 7,753 in the corresponding month last year, the NSO said.

Data provided by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) for February indicate a decrease of 1,514 persons registering under Part I and a decline of 49 among those registering under Part II of the unemployment register, when compared to the corresponding month last year. Overall, decreases in registered unemployment were recorded among all age-groups.

When compared to February last year, persons registering for work decreased, irrespective of how long they had been registering. The highest change was recorded among those who had been registering for employment between 21 and 52 weeks. The number of persons with a disability who were registering for work also decreased by 112 to 423. Males accounted for 81.6 per cent of the total number of registrants with a disability.

The largest share of men on the unemployment register sought occupations as crafts and related trade workers (17.3 per cent), whereas their female counterparts mostly sought occupations as clerks and support workers (24.9 per cent).

The registered unemployed rate in October stood at 3.8 per cent of the labour supply, (excluding part-time employment and varied from 4.5 per cent among men to 2.6 per cent among women.