The level of unemployment in the Isle of Man bucked the current global trend last month and actually fell by 0.1%.

At the end of the month the number of people registered as out of work stood at 641, which is 26 fewer than at the end of October.

The Manx Treasury is partly attributing this to people being hired for shops in the run-up to Christmas.

Even so, minister Allan Bell (pictured) says it's good news in the present climate.

He told Manx Radio:

"Ordinarily the unemployment figure in November rises, so for it to drop is unusual in itself.

"Certainly for the next month or two things are looking a lot better than we might have anticipated, earlier on this year.

"We have to put it in context though (as) there are real concerns about the challenges ahead for 2009, and we may well see this figure rise.

"But I think, for the time being, the outlook is still reasonably positive and put in context, in comparison with the United Kingdom, we are doing extremely well."

More on Monday's Mandate.