State funds training for 59,000 jobless

There were nearly 59,000 long-term unemployed people on state-funded training courses in August, new CSO figures show.

While high, the total is nearly 2,000 fewer than was the case in July and is nearly 7,000, or 10.3%, lighter when measured on a year-on-year basis.

So-called ‘activation programmes’ are mainly targeted at people who have been out of work for over a year and lone parents looking to retrain with a view to returning to the workforce.