Key Economic Statistics, November 2009

The bulletin includes latest information from a range of sources and covers a variety of time periods. This bulletin updates the statistics previously released on 11 October 2009.

The Bulletin
Statistical Bulletin 67/2009 (PDF 237kB)

The Labour Force Survey estimates for the 3 months to September 2009 show:

• The employment rate of people of working age in Wales was 69.2 per cent, down from 70.6 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 72.5 per cent.
• The ILO unemployment rate in Wales was 8.7 per cent of the economically active, up from 6.5 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  For the UK as a whole it was 7.8 per cent.
• The rate of economic activity amongst people of working age in Wales was 76.1 per cent, up from 75.7 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 78.9 per cent.

The claimant count rate in October 2009 for Wales was 5.8 per cent of the workforce, up 2.2 percentage points on October 2008 (UK rate 5.1 per cent).

The claimant count rate in October 2009 for West Wales and the Valleys was 4.5 per cent of the resident population of working-age.  The rate for East Wales stood at 4.1 per cent.

Other new information released this month is summarised below:

The Index of Market Services for Wales for the four quarters up to and including quarter 2 2009 fell by 2.2 per cent compared with the previous four quarters. The UK index fell by 3.7 per cent over period.

In April 2009, average gross weekly earnings of full-time employees in Wales stood at £506.4, 86.2 per cent of the UK average. On a residence basis, average weekly earnings in Wales stood at £515.8, 87.8 per cent of the UK average.

The detailed quarterly Labour Force Survey datasets on StatsWales were updated to include the new labour market information on 12 November 2009.

The monthly claimant count data is now available on StatsWales, please use the links below to access the data:

Claimant count by local authority and economic region, Wales
Seasonally adjusted claimant count by Government Office Region
Seasonally adjusted claimant count by gender, Wales, UK

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

Next Update:
18 December 2009