In June, 6,019 persons registered as unemployed, which is 13.1% less than in May and 2.7% less than in June last year. The vast majority of the newly-unemployed lost their jobs because of the expiry of fixed-term contracts.

Of the 7,992 that the service removed from the unemployment registry in June, 5,254 became employed, which is 18.7% less than in May and up 36% over June last year.

In the first six months of 2013 the number of the registered unemployed averaged 121,244, or 9.3% higher than in the same period last year, although the number of people who found jobs was also up 12.4% to 35,227.

The number of people who registered as unemployed anew was up 15.7% to 52,026, more than half of which after their fixed-term contracts expired.