There has been an increase in the number of people registered as unemployed in the Isle of Man.

The official figure for August - released this morning - stands at 336, up 15 from July.

But that’s 57 fewer than for August 2017.

There were 973 vacancies notified to the Job Centre over the month, with 652 unfilled by the end of the month.

A deeper examination of the figures once again shows skills gaps.

For instance, in the health sector there were 72 vacancies at the end of the month and only 14 from the sector looking for work.

There were 142 unfilled jobs in catering and entertainment, while 19 with that background were looking for work.

In e-gaming there were 31 vacancies but nobody from that sector looking for work.

And in the ’other business services’ sector, there were 34 looking for work but only seven vacancies.

The unemployment rate - the proportion of the economically-active population registered as unemployed is 0.8%.

Using rules from the International Labour Organisation, the estimated number of unemployed is 766, making an unemployment rate of 1.8%.

The latest equivalent figure for the UK was 4%.