The economy may be doing fabulously well, but try telling that to the 56,600 unemployed over the age of 55 - they've been out of work an average of one and a half years.

It's a familiar story to the intrepid few who take the time and trouble to tease the figures from data released every month by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Unemployed youth, 15 to 19 years old (and the majority full-time students, believe it or not) had been jobless for an average of 22 weeks.

That's a long time, but not as long as the 27 week average for unemployed in the 20 to 24 years age group.

Or the 29 weeks the average jobless person in the 25 to 34 years age brackets has been searching without result for work.

Or the 39 weeks which is the average for the 35 to 44 year-olds trying to dig their way out of the unemployment scrap heap.

But it gets worse for the 45 to 54 year olds.

In that age group, the average duration of unemployment just sneaks over the full year, at 53 weeks.

For the 55 to 59-year-olds, time spent in the the social and economic wilderness rises to 65 weeks - one and a quarter years.

But that's the blink of an eye compared with the 107 weeks the average 60-64 year-old who was unemployed in May had been unsuccessfully trying to find a job.

Source:Insider Retailing