The latest National Statistics Office (NSO) statistics showed that the number of registered unemployed shot up by more than 1,110 during April 2009 when compared to the same month a year ago.
When compared to the previous month, the number of registered unemployed increased by more than 200, from 6,544 in March 2009 to 6,776 in April 2009.
The number of registered unemployed in Malta in April 2009 increased by 214 when compared to the previous month, while the number of registered unemployed in Gozo in April this year increased by 7 persons when compared to a month earlier.
Both Malta and Gozo experienced an increase in unemployment, with 1,040 jobs lost in Malta and 84 in the sister island. Therefore the number of registered unemployed totalled 6,427 persons in Malta and 738 in Gozo.
The highest percentage of registered unemployed in April, 2,443 (with 36.1 per cent), were aged 45 years and over, followed by the 30-44 age cohort with 2,114 registered unemployed (with 31.2 per cent)
Next there were 857 registered unemployed persons aged 20-24 years, followed by 755 in 25-29 age bracket and 597 registered unemployed who were less than 20 years old.
In addition, according to the NSO data, the amount persons who had been registering for work for under 20 weeks increased by 840, those who had been registering between 21 to 52 weeks increased by 222, while those had been registering for more than 52 weeks increased by 84 between April 2008 and April 2009.
Among men, occupations being sought related to elementary duties and tradeswork were the most common, whereas women tended to seek jobs which were service-oriented or clerical.
According to the latest Eurostat figures, Malta’s latest unemployment rate available, that is, that for March 2009, stood at 6.7 per cent.
The average inflation in the euro area in March 2009 was 8.9 per cent, while the average inflation in the EU was 8.3 per cent.
However, there are eight EU member states – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, and Slovenia – that have a lower inflation rate than Malta at present.
