the Hon. Irving Pearman yesterday.

This compares with 548 last May -- 394 for the first time, he added.

Attempts are now being made to discover how many registered for the first time this year.

"We believe that process will have been completed within the next 10 days,'' said Mr. Pearman.

The Island-wide registration took place last Thursday and Friday.

It was designed to discover the number of those who had never registered with the Government Employment Office, and how many had done so during the last three months.

Mr. Pearman thanked the Chamber of Commerce and the Health and Social Services Ministry for helping with the survey.