There were 84,717 persons registered as unemployed on average in the first seven months of the year, 12.2% more than in the same period last year.

The number of newly registered unemployed persons was 8,222 in July, up by 8.2% on June and by 32.4% in the year-on-year comparison.

Among the newly registered, 4,042 had seen their fixed term contracts expire, 490 were first time job seekers, 127 became unemployed because of receivership and 2,221 were long-term redundancies.

The new number of newly registered redundant persons was up by 0.9% compared to June and by 197.3% year on year.

Of the 8,202 persons that were removed from the unemployment registry, jobs were found by 6,487, a 95.7% increase year-on-year.