The labour force amounted to 453,638 persons or 62.2% of the population (men 69%, women 55.9%) from 449,861 (62.5%) in the same quarter of last year.

Those employed were 414,668, the employment rate 56.8% (men 62.9%, women 51.2%) compared with 417,057 persons (57.9%) in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

The unemployed reached 38,970, a rate of 8.6% of the labour force (men 8.8%, women 8.3%) compared to 32,803 (7.3%) in the same period of last year.

Youth unemployment (15-24) amounted to 19.5% of the labour force from 14.5% in the same quarter of 2020.

Some 42.4% of the unemployed searched for a job for less than 6 months, 25.3% for 6-11 months, whereas 32.3% were long-term unemployed.

The corresponding rates for Q1 2020 were 57.9%, 13.9% and 28.2%.

The biggest share of employment was registered in the Services sector with 77.3%, followed by Manufacturing 19.3% and Agriculture with 3.4%.

Part-time employment was 12.3% of the total (50,983) from 11.4% in the same quarter of last year.

Source: Financial Mirror