The number of unemployed in the 15-74 age group grew to 456,000 in November-January from 442,000 in the previous three-month period. The increase included a decrease of 32,900 in the number of employed. The unemployment rate among men rose by 2.5 percentage points and the rate among women rose by 2.4 percentage points. The workforce participation rate among 15- to 74-year-olds inched down 0.3 percentage points to 54.7pc in November-January. The number of employed people in the 15-74 age group was 3,750,000. The workforce participation rate was 61.7pc for the 15-64 age group and 64.3pc for the 15-61 age group. The number of employed in the 15-64 age group fell by 91,000 from a year earlier to 3,719,000 in November-January. People between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for 18.2pc of unemployed. The unemployment rate among this age group was 27.8pc, 6.3 percentage points more than a year earlier. The unemployment rate in the 25-54 age group climbed 2.4 percentage points to 10.00pc in the same period. About 45.1pc of the unemployed had looked for a job for a year or more. The average time spent unemployed fell by 1.7 months to 16.4 months in November-January from the same period a year earlier.