According to data available on the IEFP website, the drop in the number was due to a drop in all groups of unemployed people, notably men (-19.0 percent), those enrolled for less than one year (-15.9 percent), those seeking new employment (-16.4 percent) and those with a primary school education (-20 percent).
According to the IEFP, unemployment affected 44,414 young people in December, or a year-on-year drop of 19.7 percent (10,920 young people) and 6.9 percent compared to November 2017 (3,285 fewer young people).
The number of long-term unemployed at the end of December was 192,996, down 16.7 percent from the same month of 2016 (38,559 fewer people) and 0.8 percent down on the previous month (1,463 fewer people).
Job placements by the IEFP in December totalled 5,263 across the whole country, or 8 percent more than in December of the previous year, but 28.9 percent less than in November.