Secretary of State hails "golden opportunity " to transform Welsh economy as employment rises again
Figures out today point to a burgeoning jobs market with an additional 9,000 people finding work in the last quarter.
Figures out today point to a burgeoning jobs market with an additional 9,000 people finding work in the last quarter.
At the same time, a strengthening economy means increasing numbers of young people are moving off unemployment benefits with a drop in the annual claimant count.
The latest Labour Market statistics show seven out of ten Welsh adults of working age are in employment .
The upbeat snapshot of employment in Wales comes in the wake of a report published this week which revealed rising living standards and wages across the UK* .
Today’s LMS figures show:
- Employment in Wales has increased by 9,000 over the last quarter
- The employment rate (proportion of 16-64 year olds in employment) was 70.9% - up 0.2 percentage points over the quarter.
- Unemployment levels in Wales have decreased by 7,000 over the last quarter
- The unemployment rate (proportion of 16+ unemployed) was 6.2% - down 0.5 percentage points over the quarter.
- The youth claimant count fell by 3,000 over the year.
Secretary of State Stephen Crabb said:
All the major economic indicators are moving in the right direction. Living standards are improving, wages are rising and more and more people are going out to work. Yesterday’s inflation figure of minus 0.1% underlines how real incomes are growing.
This Government has done a lot of the heavy lifting over the past five years to create the right conditions for growth.
Now is the time to raise both our sights and our ambition. Wales doesn’t have to languish at the bottom of the league tables and we now have a golden opportunity to close the productivity gap on the rest of the country and shake off our historic reputation as the ‘sick man of Britain’.