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It said the main reason for the rise was the fact that many short-term contracts expired in December.
The unemployment rate will be published by the service in February. It reached 8.8 percent in October, the latest data available, when there were 82,993 unemployed.
The government expects the unemployment rate to fall to some 8.7 percent this year mainly on account of GDP growth which should reach 3.9 percent, boosted by a rise of exports and investments.