A new report from the ESRI says the majority of jobseekers would be better off financially in employment.

The 'Making Work Pay More: Recent Incentives' report from the Economic and Social Research Institute shows eight out of 10 jobseekers would earn at least 40%more if they got a job, while six in 10 would see their income double.

There are some families for whom the gap between in-work and out-of-work incomes is small, and in a small percentage of cases out-of-work income can exceed in-work income.

Among jobseekers, such families are typically jobless couples, particularly those with children.

"In the vast majority of cases, unemployed individuals would be financially better off in work than out of work," said report co-author Michael Savage.

"We find that the Back to Work Family Dividend, a recent policy initiative designed to improve work incentives for jobseekers with children, helps to make work pay more for this group."

Professor Tim Callan said that the possible loss of a medical card is not an obstacle to taking up employment for the long-term unemployed.

"This time we've managed also to take into account the issue of whether people are facing a trap in terms of their loss of medical cards," he said.

"There are two aspects to this - one is that people who are long-term unemployed can keep their medical card for up to three years, but the other thing is that those people who would lose a medical card when they take up a job and how much do they lose in terms of value, and what we find is it makes rather little difference."