Amidst rising unemployment across the UK for the last two quarters, we have seen drops in the official unemployment rate here in Wales. This has of course been met with wild backslapping celebration by Labour and Plaid Ministers. For Labour it is an example of Gordon Brown growing Wales out of recession, while for the Nationalists it is a clear case of the expert handling of the economy by their leader.
All this is a distraction, and seeks to pull a thin veil over what is really going on in Welsh lives and communities. If you look at two other key indicators, it clearly shows that Wales’ job market is teetering on the brink of serious and irreversible problems.
The employment rate, which measures the actual numbers of people in real jobs as opposed to the numbers registered as officially unemployed fell by nearly a whole percentage point in the last quarter. This leaves Wales as the UK “region” with the fourth worst employment rate behind Northern Ireland, London and the North East of England. Meanwhile, those who are economically active (meaning they are over sixteen and contributing to GDP) has fallen by 0.8% leaving Wales the third worst place in the UK.
What is clear when these figures are taken together is that behind the simplistic spin and the sentiment that Welsh unemployment is coming down, there is a very bleak picture in Wales. There are now 437 thousand Welsh people of working age who are economically inactive, almost a quarter of the population. That is a whole five percent of the population higher than the UK average.
Since the dark days of Thatcherism, Wales has been at the bottom of the pile for employment, and I know that Labour and Plaid will blame the Tories for the negativity of the picture. While the scars of Thatcherism will take decades to heal, the Labour party must take responsibility for the fact that after a decade of record public spending, Wales is still at the bottom of most UK economic indicators. Until we see a marked change in attitude, until we see Government that accepts the future of economic prosperity in this country lies in the creation of quality private sector jobs and investment, until we see real change at the top, Wales will continue to be the poor-man of Europe, life expectancy here will continue to fall behind and the health and well-being of our children will continue to suffer.
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Brilliant post. The problem with the employment situation inWales is jobcentreplus. There repeated failure to engage with employers. In fact employers want nothing to do with them due mainly to the haphazard administration.There hopeless administration and the diabolical little quangos that adminster the schemes that they promote. It is a situation that the hapless newspapers in Wales completely miss. It is no wonder that a considerable amount of people have to do what some may as’ moonlighting’ to survive. For many this so called is no worse than a fiver here and a tenner there.These moonlighters do considerable good as well and are very useful to Welsh society. Helping elderly people and the low incomed who could not afford more expensive help. Something the DWP could not possibly comprehend. Nothing compared to what M.P.’s get away with all there expenses.
It would be good to see jenny R blog more often!
Agree Jenny ,and just wait until the full facts about the backlog and disarray on their much lauded business support programme is discovered.That will add to the catalogue of mismanagement of the Economy. new and existing entrepreneurs are waiting up to 4 months for basic support