Key Economic Statistics, March 2011

The release includes latest information from a range of sources and covers a variety of time periods. This release updates the statistics previously released on 16 February 2011.

The key points from the latest ONS release are:

The Labour Force Survey estimates for the 3 months to January 2011 show:

• The employment rate for those aged from 16 - 64 in Wales was 67.5 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 70.5 per cent, up 0.1 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
• The unemployment rate in Wales was 8.7 per cent of the economically active, down 0.5 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.  For the UK as a whole it was 8.0 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
• The economic inactivity rate for those aged from 16 - 64 in Wales was 25.9 per cent, unchanged from the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 23.3 per cent, down 0.3 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
• The claimant count rate in February 2011 for Wales was 5.0 per cent of the workforce, down 0.5 percentage points on February 2010 (UK rate 4.5 per cent, down 0.4 percentage points).

The public sector employment data for 2010 quarter 4 show:

• Public sector employment in Wales fell by 7,000 (2.0 per cent) over the year to stand at 342,000. Over the same period public sector employment in the UK fell by 2.1 per cent. As a percentage of employment, the public sector in Wales accounted for 26.4 per cent, compared to 21.3 per cent in the UK.

The workforce jobs series has been postponed by the ONS until next month due to the delays in the production and quality assurance processes.

Further information

StatsWales website.

Office for National Statistics website: Labour Market Statistics Regional Monthly Data.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5017
E-mail: economic.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

13 April 2011