More than half jobless out of work long-term

The government says January’s unemployment figures were the lowest for that month for four years.

At the end of the month, 973 people were out of work, giving an unemployment rate of just 2.2 per cent.

However, the statistics show 91 more people were looking for work in January compared the December’s figure.

And the data also shows more than half of those looking for a job had been out of work for more than three months.