In July, the number of persons registering for work stood at 5,062 compared to 6,834 in the corresponding month last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

Data provided by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) for July indicates a decrease of 1,766 persons registering under Part I and a decrease of 6 among those registering under Part II of the unemployment register, when compared to July 2014. Overall, decreases in registered unemployment were recorded among all age groups when compared to the same month in 2014.

When compared to July last year, registrants for work decreased irrespective of how long they had been registering. The largest decrease was recorded among persons who had been registering for over one year. The number of persons with a disability who were registering for work also decreased by 109 to 384. Males accounted for 80.5 per cent of total registrants with a disability.

The largest share of males on the unemployment register sought occupations as crafts and related trade workers (18.2 per cent), whereas their female counterparts mostly sought occupations as clerical support workers (27.5 per cent). The registered unemployment rate in March 2015 stood at 3.4 per cent of the labour supply, (excluding part-time employment), and varied from 4.0 per cent among males to 2.3 per cent among females.