The number of registered unemployed persons in Cyprus declined to 39,088 in March this year, marking a reduction of 8.6% compared to March 2016, the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat) said on Wednesday.

In absolute numbers, the annual reduction reached 3,695 persons.

According to Cystat, the reduction is mainly attributed to the sectors of public administration (a decrease of 1,325 unemployed persons), construction (a decrease of 1,223), manufacturing (a decrease of 597) and trade (a decrease of 411). The number of unemployed persons in the Financial and Insurance activities sector increased by 430 persons.

Based on the seasonally adjusted data that show the trend of unemployment, the number of registered unemployed for March 2017 decreased to 36.420 persons in comparison to 37.068 in the previous month.