Labour market overview: September 2023

Monthly data on employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.

Headline labour market indicators, 3 months to July 2023

This headline provides a summary of the latest key statistics relating to the Welsh labour market, and includes data from the Labour Force Survey and experimental statistics from HMRC’s Pay As You Earn Real Time Information.

Employment rate

Figure 1: Employment rate, 3 months to July 2013 to the 3 months to July 2023

Description of Figure 1: Line chart showing the employment rate in the UK has generally been higher than in Wales over the last 10 years.

Source: Welsh Government analysis of Labour Force Survey

Wales

The employment rate in Wales was 74.0%. This is up 2.1 percentage points on the quarter and up 1.9 percentage points on the year.

UK

The UK employment rate was 75.5%. This is down 0.5 percentage points on the quarter and up slightly on the year.

Unemployment rate

Figure 2: Unemployment rate, 3 months to July 2013 to the 3 months to July 2023

Description of Figure 2: Line chart showing the unemployment rate has decreased overall in both Wales and the UK over the last 10 years.

Source: Welsh Government analysis of Labour Force Survey

Wales

The unemployment rate in Wales was 3.8%. This is down 1.1 percentage points on the quarter and up 0.5 percentage points on the year.

UK

The UK unemployment rate was 4.3%. This is up 0.5 percentage points on the quarter and up 0.7 percentage points on the year.

Economic inactivity rate

Figure 3: Economic inactivity rate, 3 months to July 2013 to the 3 months to July 2023

Description of Figure 3: Line chart showing the economic inactivity rate has generally decreased in the UK over the last 10 years but has seen an overall increase since early 2020. In Wales, the rate has fluctuated over this time but generally remains above the UK rate.

Source: Welsh Government analysis of Labour Force Survey

Wales

The economic inactivity rate in Wales was 23.2%. This is down 1.2 percentage points on the quarter and down 2.4 percentage points on the year.

UK

The UK economic inactivity rate was 21.1%. This is up slightly on the quarter and down 0.6 percentage points on the year.

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

Figure 4: Payrolled Employees, Wales, August 2018 to August 2023

Description of Figure 4: A line chart showing the trend in the number of paid employees over the past few years has been generally increasing despite a steep decrease between March 2020 and July 2020.

Source: Welsh Government analysis of Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, Office for National Statistics and HMRC

The number of paid employees has generally increased in recent years, but fell during the pandemic. The number of paid employees returned to pre-pandemic levels in July 2021, and has remained above since.

Early estimates for August 2023 indicate that the number of paid employees in Wales has decreased by 1,700 (0.1%) over the month to 1.32 million.

At a UK level, early estimates for August 2023 showed a small monthly decrease of 1,000 (0.0% to 1 decimal place).

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

Further information

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that there is an increasing challenge to maintain response rates for the Labour Force Survey and that headline numbers for employment are starting to vary from other labour market data sources. In addition to the Office for National Statistics blog on this topic, please see the latest Chief Statistician’s update on understanding and managing the impact of these challenges for labour market data in Wales.

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