Number of unemployed close to 7,000

The number of registered unemployed people rose to 6,869 in September, up by 4.8% over last year, the National Statistics Office said. The unemployment rate for women rose by more than three times that of men.

Records provided by the Employment and Training Corporation show that in September, the number of people registering as unemployed in Malta and Gozo stood at 6,185 and 684 respectively. When compared to last year, the number of unemployed people went up by 311 and four respectively.

The number of people registering under Part 1 of the unemployment register increased by 347 (5.9%), while those registering under Part 2 went down by 32 (-4.8%). When compared to last year, unemployment among men went up by 163, or 3.2%, while female unemployment increased by 152, or 10.6%.

Unemployment decreased among young people under the age of 20, but increased among older people aged 45 and over. Accordingly, the former decreased by 11.8%, while the latter advanced by 10.6%.

When compared to September 2011, the number of people who have been out of work for more than one year went up by 215, or 9.4%, while people who were registering for work for less than 21 weeks went down by 50, or 1.7%. In line with past trends, the majority of unemployed men were looking for occupations in services, sales and crafts, whereas women mostly sought clerical jobs.

During September, the number of people with a disability under Part 1 of the unemployment register numbered 511 – an increase of 96, or 23.1%, over the corresponding month last year.

In May 2012, the registered unemployment rate stood at 4.2% of the labour supply (excluding parttimers): 5% for men and 2.7% for women.

The unemployment rate for people registering under Part 1 stood at 4.6% among people aged 45 and over, and 4.9% for people under 25 years of age. When compared to September last year, increases of 0.2 and 0.5 percentage points were registered for these two rates respectively.

The unemployment rate of people who had been registering for work for at least one year under Part 1 of the unemployment register stood at 1.5%: 1.9% for men and 0.7% for women.