Labour market analysis
Until the pandemic Wales had achieved record high employment rates in recent years, and we have seen a significant decline in both unemployment and economic inactivity.
Today the challenge is very different as we support the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to try and address long term inequalities in our labour market: from a large disability employment gap, to persistent levels of young people not in education, employment or training, and substantial numbers of people with low pay and in insecure work.
We produce detailed and timely analysis of the latest labour market statistics, exploring what the figures tell us about the health of our economy, and peoples’ experiences of work.
Wales Labour Market Statistics – August 2020
This briefing sets out analysis of the ONS labour market statistics for Wales, released on the morning of 11th August 2020. The data cover the number of people claiming benefits up to July 2020, and the employment figures for the period April to June 2020.
David Hagendyk, Director of Learning and Work Institute Cymru, said;
Although on the surface there has been relatively little change it is clear that with the furlough scheme starting to unwind and with a series of redundancy announcements already made, Wales is facing a jobs crisis that is unprecedented since the start of devolution in 1999.
The latest jobs figures confirm that claimant count has more than doubled since the start of the crisis, with over 60,000 more people now on payroll unemployed. That figure is likely to rise substantially once businesses are no longer able to access support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
The data also confirms that those areas that went into the crisis with the highest levels of unemployment are amongst those hit the hardest since it began.