Statistics

Labour market overview: October 2021

National Statistics

Monthly data on employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.

Headline labour market indicators, 3 months to August 2021

The headline labour market indicators estimated from the Labour Force Survey provide an indication of how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the labour market. Other data sources, such as the number of paid employees presented later in this headline, can also be used to produce a more complete picture.

Employment rate

The employment rate in the UK is generally higher than in Wales over the last 10 years.

Wales

The employment rate in Wales was 74.2%. This is 0.6 percentage points up on the quarter and 1.8 percentage points up on the year. This is the largest annual increase since February to April 2019.

UK

The UK employment rate was 75.3%. This is up 0.5 percentage points on the quarter and down 0.1 percentage points on the year.

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate has decreased overall in both Wales and the UK over the last 4 years. The rate increased following the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but has begun to decrease over the last couple of months.

Wales

The unemployment rate in Wales was 4.0%. This is 0.2 percentage points up over both the quarter and the year.

UK

The UK unemployment rate was 4.5%. This is 0.4 percentage points down on the quarter and 0.1 percentage points down on the year.

Economic inactivity rate

The economic inactivity rate has generally decreased in the UK over the last 4 years but has generally increased since the end of 2020. Whereas, the rate has fluctuated in Wales.

Wales

The economic inactivity rate in Wales was 22.6%. This is 0.8 percentage points down on the quarter and 2.1 percentage points down on the year. This is the largest annual decrease since February to April 2019.

UK

The UK economic inactivity rate was 21.1%. This is down by 0.2 percentage points on both the quarter and the year.

Note

Comparisons to the previous year cover the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic (June to August 2020).

Monthly paid employees and earnings from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information

The Office for National Statistics and HM Revenue & Customs publish data for Wales on payrolled employees, mean pay, aggregate pay and single month estimates for median pay.

Paid employees

The chart shows a generally upward trend of paid employees over the past few years and then a steep decrease from March 2020 until July. Since the end of 2020, the number of paid employees has generally been increasing.

The number of paid employees has generally increased in recent years, but fell during the pandemic. The number of paid employees began increasing again at the end of 2020 and is now above the pre-pandemic level.

Early estimates for September 2021 indicate that the number of paid employees in Wales has increased by 6,400 (0.5%) over the month to 1.27 million. This is above the pre-pandemic estimates from February 2020, and an increase of 47,700 since the lowest point during the pandemic in November 2020.

Early estimates for September 2021 at a UK level showed the largest monthly increase since the series began in 2014.

Other detailed breakdowns of paid employees including by local authority and by age are published by the Office for National Statistics.

Reports

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Contact

Samuel Musters

Telephone: 0300 025 9010

Rydym yn croesawu galwadau a gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg / We welcome calls and correspondence in Welsh.

Media

Telephone: 0300 025 8099

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Labour market overview