Unemployment and number in work both fall in Wales

Wales has seen the joint biggest fall in its unemployment rate in the UK compared with a year ago, according to latest labour market figures.

But the rate of people in work in Wales is the UK's lowest, and has fallen compared with the same period last year.

And the proportion of people of working age who were not working - for reasons such as sickness, caring for family or choosing not to - remained the highest of all UK nations and regions.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of vacancies continued to decline although it was above pre-Covid levels, while the medium-term picture was "somewhat subdued".

The unemployment rate in Wales was estimated to be 3.8% between April and June, compared with 5% in the same period in 2023.

This is the biggest drop, along with the east of England, across the UK.

It is a slight rise on the previous quarter but has been lower than the UK average now for a year.

However, Wales has the lowest employment rate across all nations and regions - 68.9% - behind a UK average of 74.5%.

There were just over 1.4m people in work in Wales, down 2.8 percentage points on April to June in 2023.

The ONS cautions against looking at quarterly and monthly changes in data due to issues with response rates to the labour market surveys.

The economic inactivity rate in Wales (28.3%) remained the highest in the UK.

This is the proportion of 16-64-year-olds who are not working, and include those on long-term sick, those with caring responsibilities, students and others who have chosen not to work or have retired early.

This has risen 3.7 percentage points compared with a year ago.

According to the most recent estimates a third of those economically inactive were long-term sick - roughly the same as a year ago.

Welsh Conservatives said it was "incredibly disappointing" to see Welsh economic inactivity "remain stubbornly high".

“The focus must be on upskilling our workforce of today, educating our workforce of tomorrow, and actively bringing to Wales the good quality, well paid jobs people deserve," said economy spokesman Samuel Kurtz.

Across the UK, wage growth continued to slow, rising at an annual rate of 5.4% - the weakest for about two years.

The ONS said this was affected by comparing with a period, including June 2023, when one-off NHS bonuses were paid.

The average median pay in Wales rose by 4.6% over the year to July to £2,263 per month.