There were a total of 7,699 people registering for work with the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) at the end of January 2006, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Of these, 7,010 were registering for work under Part 1, and 689 were registered under Part 2.

The number of registered unemployed went up by 320 over the preceding month. On the other hand, when one compares the figures for January 2005 and January 2006, the number of registered unemployed dropped by 481 people.

Of the total unemployed, the unemployment in Malta reached 6,977 people, while unemployment in Gozo stood at 722 people. In the month under review, the new registrants under Part 1 of the unemployment register amounted to 433.

At the end of January 2006, 2,435 people (31.6 per cent) were under the age of 24 years. A further analysis of the age variable indicates that, in January 2006, there were 2,019 people (26.2 per cent) aged 45 and over registering for work.

Among the total number of unemployed, 3,659 or 47.5 per cent had been looking for a job for less than 20 weeks, while a further 2,636 people (34.2 per cent) had been looking for a job for more than a year. The most common type of occupations sought by men relate to trades and elementary work. On the other hand, women tend to go more for clerical, service and sales occupations. The unemployment rates for January 2006 are not available since the data relating to the labour supply for this month has not yet been published.

In September 2005, the unemployment rate stood at 4.9 per cent of the labour supply. On a gender basis, the male unemployment rate stood at 5.4, while the female rate stood at 3.8 per cent. The long-term unemployment rate stood at 1.8 per cent. The unemployment rate among older people and young people stood at 3.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively.