Chief Minister Howard Quayle has welcomed the results of two government reports on the working population.

The latest unemployment figures and the annual Earnings Survey were released last week.

Unemployment stood at 1.3 per cent of the economically active population at the end of January.

The number of people registered as unemployed was 601, some 272 lower than a year ago.

Mr Quayle said: ’It’s really good news.

’Unemployment is at the lowest level since the global financial crisis in 2008.’

But he added that a priority was to continue to grow the skilled workforce of 20 to 40-year-olds so the economy continues to grow and the government can afford to fund services to the standard residents want.

’We are doing our utmost to train our young people for the well-paid jobs but we have the same problem as the rest of the developed world with an ageing population.

He indicated there were ’some exciting new businesses’ looking to set up in the island, in the e-business and manufacturing sectors.

He said the results of the latest annual Earnings Survey provided ’positive news’.

It showed that average full-time earnings in the Isle of Man were up by 2.2 per cent.

And full-time earnings for the lowest 10 per cent of earners were up by 4.5 per cent.

Mr Quayle said: ’That’s really good - people on the bread line have seen increases in their earnings in real terms.’

But he said that ’more needs to be done’ and the Council of Ministers is ’constantly working to take the Isle of Man forward’.