Unemployment figures cut by half in 12 months

Official figures supplied by national jobs agency Jobsplus show that Malta’s unemployment figures went down 2,766 in February 2017, compared to the 4,511 in February last year.

All age groups recorded decreases in levels under Part II of the unemployment register, while the number of registered unemployed aged under 20 under Part I have increased by nine persons.

According to the National Statistics Office, when compared to February 2016, 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 followed by those registering for less than 21 weeks.

The number of persons with a disability who were registering for work also decreased by 74 to 307. Males accounted for 78.2 per cent of total registrants with a disability.

The largest share of males on the unemployment register sought occupations as clerical support workers with 18.4 per cent and as craft and related trades workers (18.0 per cent). Among females, 37.0 per cent sought occupations as clerical support workers.

The registered unemployment rate in September 2016 stood at 1.7 per cent of the labour supply, (excluding part-time employment) and varied from 2.0 per cent among men to 1.3 per cent among women.