The latest data, published by the Employment Service on Thursday, means registered unemployment is at its lowest since last September.

"The unemployment rate continued to drop in August, which is nothing unusual for this time of the year. It is, nonetheless, encouraging that the drop seems to be bigger this year compared to the same period a year ago," the Employment Service said on Thursday.

A total of 5,581 registered anew at the Employment Service in August, which is 24.6% less than in July and 13.4% less than in August last year.

More than half of these people became jobless after their fixed-term employment contracts expired. Following were long-term redundant workers (1,066), labourers that lost their jobs due to receivership (1,066) and first-time job seekers (783).

The service crossed out almost 7,000 from the unemployment records, out of which a total of 4,254 were taken out of the register because of new employment. The biggest part of these people were employed in manufacturing, construction and trading.

Unemployment among women over 30 keeps on increasing on a monthly basis, while the unemployment rate among the young (under 30) is dropping steadily.

Over the past few months, the unemployment rate has been rising among the long-term unemployed.

The average registered unemployed figure stood at 122,247 in the first eight months of this year, which is 1.7% more than in the same period last year.

Still, only 63,135 registered anew at the Employment Service in the same period which is 6% less compared to last year. Again, more than half of these people lost their jobs because their employment contracts expired.

In the past eight months, almost 52,000 people, out of 72,366 that got taken out of the unemployment register, were employed anew, which is 16.6% more compared to the same period last year.