The number of registered unemployed persons decreased by 178 over the preceding month. On an annual basis, the number of unemployed persons dropped by 99.

In the month under review, those persons registering under Part 1 of the unemployment register amounted to 7,186 whereas those registering under Part 2 amounted to 767.

In August 2004, the age distribution of the registered unemployed indicates that within this part of the labour supply there were 960 persons under 20 years of age, 1,310 persons aged between 20 to 24 years of age, 989 persons aged between 25 to 29, 2,456 persons aged between 30 to 44, and 2,238 persons aged 45 years and over.

When it comes to the duration of unemployment, there were 3,300 persons that were registering for work for under 20 weeks as at the end of August 2004.

Taking into account both those registering for work under Part 1 and Part 2, it transpires that there were 581 registered unemployed in Gozo and 7,372 registered unemployed in Malta. With specific reference to Gozo, there were 414 males and 167 females registering for work. On the other hand, there were 5,932 males and 1,440 females registering for work in the island of Malta.

In August, the number of unemployed persons in Gozo fell by 55 over the previous month and by 10 on an annual basis.

Unemployment rates for April

The latest unemployment rate, for April 2004, stood at 5.8 per cent of the labour supply. This figure translates into 6.5 per cent for men and 4.0 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 during the same month.

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