EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know before you head out the door.

1.#UNEMPLOYMENT: For the first time since May 2009, less than 400,000 are on Ireland’s Live Register. New figures from the CSO showed that the unemployment rate dropped to 13.2 per cent last month, but Minister Joan Burton said that it was still “unacceptably high”.

2.#SPYING: The Tánaiste said today that he raised concerns over US agencies spying back in July. Eamon Gilmore said that he was satisfied with the US Embassy’s response, believing that Ireland was not under NSA surveillance. Gilmore later said “friends don’t bug each other’s telephones“.

3.#LABOUR PAINS: The Labour Party lost another councillor today – the third is as many days. Wicklow County Council chaiman Jimmy O’Shaughnessy said that the “people at the top of the party” had “lost their way”.

4.#ASSAULT: A priest in South Armagh was assaulted last night, the PSNI said. The priest had discovered three youths in the parochial house who then assaulted him, forcing him into a bathroom. He was taken to hospital for facial injuries.

5.#GONE: Danske Bank announced that it will withdraw from the personal banking market in Ireland, shedding 150 jobs. Speaking to TheJournal.ie this morning, IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said that today’s announcement represented a “sad day for banking in Ireland”.