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The decrease is the result of a drop in the inflow into unemployment and a surge in the number of those who checked out of the unemployment registry after finding a job or becoming self-employed.

The latter figure was up 42.2% at the monthly level and up 37.9% year-on-year to 8,500. The total number of those who were checked out of the registry in March stood at 10,406.

The service registered 7,372 newly unemployed in March, 7.5% fewer than the month before and 4.3% down year-on-year.

The newly registered included 1,153 first time job seekers, 1,536 redundant workers and 3,549 whose fixed-term jobs expired.

March saw a drop in the proportions of the unemployed aged 30-39 and 40-49, male unemployed and those with primary and vocational education.

The percentage of young people at the ages of up to 29 years remained unchanged at 26.1%, but was up from 23.6% in March 2013. The proportion of first time job seekers also rose.

The first quarter saw a 13.8% surge in the number of first time job seekers compared on the same period a year ago. Meanwhile the number of those whose fixed-term contracts expired and redundant workers was down 5.4% and 4.6%, respectively.

Between January and March 27,445 were removed from the unemployment registry, of whom 20,684 because they got a job, which marks a 20.5% rise on the same period in 2013.