Long-term unemployment worst in Northern Ireland: David Nicholson-Lord looks at the latest snapshot of society from the Central Statistical Office

Long-term unemployment is much more serious in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK.

One in five men in the province has been out of work for at least five years - four times as many as in the UK as a whole.

In contrast one in forty men in East Anglia, the South-west and the South-east has been without a job for a similar time.