Employment in Wales stands at the highest rate on record, and the decline in unemployment in Wales has outperformed the rest of the UK for the seventh consecutive month.
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
Commenting on the latest Labour Market Statistics published today (19 October 2016), First Minister Carwyn Jones said:
“The decline in unemployment in Wales has outperformed the rest of the UK for the seventh consecutive month. Unemployment in Wales now stands at 4.3%, that is 0.7 percentage points lower than the UK average and a fall of 1.7 percentage points over the past 12 months. Economic inactivity and claimant count in Wales have also decreased over the year.
“Employment in Wales stands at 73.5%, the highest rate on record, with 38,000 more workers in employment across Wales than at this same time last year.
“We have big ambitions for Wales and its economy and will continue to work hard to support business and ensure the economic conditions to create and safeguard sustainable jobs and training in Wales. That is why we are investing £111milion next year to fund our all-age apprenticeship and traineeships programme, to meet our target of creating 100,000 apprenticeship places over the lifetime of this government.
“We are also allocating an extra £46milion for the new Development Bank of Wales to improve access to lending for thousands of small and medium-sized Welsh companies in order to support our priority for creating and safeguarding jobs right across Wales.”