Almost 8,200 persons registered as newly unemployed in April, up 6.2% over March, but 9,483 were removed from the register, of which over two-thirds got a job or became self-employed.

In the first four months of the year just over 39,000 registered as unemployed, up 21% year-on-year, while 35,810 deregistered, of which 23,500 got jobs.

Both in April and in the first four months of the year, the vast majority of the newly-unemployed lost their jobs because of the expiry of fixed-term contracts, while about a fifth were made redundant or lost their jobs in bankruptcy proceedings and about a tenth were first-time job seekers.

The Employment Service provides just the numbers, it does not calculate the unemployment rate, but it has the latest data; the Statistics Office, which calculates the official unemployment rate, has a one-month delay.

For February, the latest month for which both figures are available, the jobless total stood at 124,066 and the registered unemployment rate was 13.6%.