According to the service, the unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points in December and stood at 9 per cent on January 1. The number of people without work increased by 6.1 thousand and amounted to 163.6 thousand.

As reported, demand for labour fell in December. Employers posted 8.4 thousand job vacancies last month. This is the lowest number of vacancies registered with the Employment Service last year.

Despite the slowdown in the labour market, 14.8 per cent more unemployed people registered with the Employment Service found employment in December than in the same period last year - 14,100 people found work.

In December, five employers notified layoffs (407 people). Last year, the largest number of redundancies was in tailor shops.

‘In December there is traditionally lower activity in the labour market. According to our observations, most of the changes are seasonal, so we hope that the first months of this year will bring more stability,’ said Jurgita Zemblytė, head of the Monitoring and Analysis Department of the Employment Service.