The number of unemployed people in the island for July stood at 321, a marginal rise of eight, compared with the previous month, but 99 fewer than in July 2017, according to the latest government figures.

The July 2018 figure is the lowest July total since 2002, representing 0.8 per cent of the economically active population.

A total of 226 men and 95 women are on the unemployment register, representing 70 per cent and 30 per cent of the total respectively.

Retail and distribution was one of the sectors with the highest number of people unemployed, with a total of 23 in July, while the building trade also featured in the statistics with 18 unemployed unskilled workers and 17 skilled. There were 17 people looking for jobs in the catering and entertainment sector.

However, catering and entertainment also had the highest number of vacancies with 137 unfilled positions.

But second only to this was the medical services category which had 81 positions unfilled in July and just 14 people registered as unemployed in this sector.

Other high demand areas were retail with 51 positions unfilled and manufacturing which had 37 vacancies.

The south and the east of the island had the highest number of vacancies which, in each case, exceeded the number of job seekers.

In the east there were 490 vacancies and 204 people looking for jobs, while in the south there were around 60 vacancies and 41 people looking.

The north of the island is the only area where job seekers exceed vacancies, with 55 people looking for work but only a few openings. In the west there were 21 job seekers chasing about 20 vacancies.