The number of people registered with the Employment Service rose by 1.2% from June to 106,896 in July, which is slightly fewer than in July 2011, but the unemployment rate was 0.2 percentage points higher this July.

The reason is that the active population decreased by nearly 14,300 from July 2011 to July 2012.

The number of people in employment dropped by 0.6% on June and by 1.7% year-on-year to 810,546 this July. The biggest monthly fall, at the rate of 1.7%, was recorded in education.

This year's unemployment trends are similar to those observed by statisticians last year; after the jobless rate declined in the first half of 2011, it turned upwards in July and kept increasing in the following months.