Unemployment starts to drop
At 7,052, registered unemployment in May decreased by 214 persons when compared to the corresponding month last year, and by 554 in respect of the previous month.
The NSO said that in May, the number of registered unemployed stood at 7,052. Compared to the corresponding month in 2009, unemployment decreased by 214 persons, or 2.9 per cent. Similarly, the number of registered unemployed decreased by 554 persons, or 7.3 per cent, when compared to April.
In Malta, registered unemployment totalled 6,338, whereas in Gozo it stood at 714. In the twelve months to May 2010, unemployment decreased by 163 and 51 in Malta and Gozo respectively.
Year-on-year, the number of persons who were registering for work for over one year increased by 284, or 12.2 per cent. In contrast, those persons registering for employment for up to 20 weeks decreased by 341, or 10.3 per cent.
In December 2009, the registered unemployment rate stood at 5.1 per cent of the labour supply. On a gender basis, the unemployment rate for men stood at 5.8 per cent, while that for women stood at 3.5 per cent.
The long-term unemployment rate, referring to people who have been registering for work for more than one year, stood at 1.7 per cent. The unemployment rate among older workers (45 years and over) was 5.1 per cent while that among young people (under 25) stood at 6.4 per cent.
