In the month under review, employment in the private direct services sector decreased by 114 persons in comparison to November 2003. In relation to the same month in the previous year, the number of the fulltime gainfully occupied decreased by 1,245 persons.

The private market services sector decreased in its employment levels by 134 persons in December 2003 in comparison to November 2003.

On the other hand, there was an increase of 812 persons employed in the private market services sector on a year-to-year basis. In December 2003, hotels and catering establishments dropped 78 persons, whereas 30 jobs were lost in the transport, storage and communications sector over the last month.

In December 2003, the public sector reduced 25 employees from its books. On a year-to-year basis, the public sector dropped 563 employees.

Much of the decline in public sector employment in the 12 months up to December 2003 occurred in companies where the state holds majority shareholding.

Part-time Employment

In December 2003, the administrative records of the ETC indicated that there were 18,882 persons holding a part-time employment as their primary occupation.

On the other hand, there were 15,200 persons who hold a part-time job in addition to their full-time employment in December 2003.

Most of the part-timers who have a part-time employment as their primary occupation are employed in the services and especially the private sector. Accordingly, 14,259 persons (75.5 per cent) were employed in the market services sector in December 2003. Quite a few part-timers (15.6) were employed in the production sector in December 2003. Only a few part-timers (8.9 per cent) were employed in non-market services (i.e. government departments) in December 2003.

Those holding a part-time job in conjunction to their full-time employment are equally likely to be employed in the services and especially the private sector. Actually, 11,498 of these type of part-timers (75.6 per cent) were employed in the market services sector in December 2003.

Registered Unemployed

In December 2003, there were 8,175 registered unemployed with the ETC. Of these 6,606 were males, while 1,569 were females. The registered unemployment rate stood at 5.7 per cent of the labour supply.