Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate (1.7%) and the underemployment rate (0.4%) for February-April 2014 held stable as the previous period (January-March).

Total labour force was 387,500 and the labour force participation rate rose by 0.3 percentage points from January-March, at 73.6%.

Total employment reached 381,000, an increase of 3,100 from January-March. Analysed by industry, employment in the Construction sector increased by 3.8% to 45,600.

Number of the unemployed was similar to January-March, at 6,400; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 7.2% of the total unemployed, down by 0.4 percentage points from the previous period.

In comparison with February-April 2013, the labour force participation rate increased by 1.8 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.