Key Economic Statistics, December 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 13 November 2009.

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

• The employment rate of people of working age in Wales was 69.1 per cent, down from 70.9 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 72.5 per cent.
• The ILO unemployment rate in Wales was 8.8 per cent of the economically active, up from 6.6 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  For the UK as a whole it was 7.9 per cent.
• The rate of economic activity amongst people of working age in Wales was 76.0 per cent, down from 76.1 per cent in the same period a year earlier.  The UK average was 79.0 per cent.

The claimant count rate in November 2009 for Wales was 5.7 per cent of the workforce, up 1.8 percentage points on November 2008 (UK rate 5.0 per cent).

The claimant count rate in November 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.

Annual Population Survey estimates for the year to June 2009 show:

• The working age employment rate in West Wales and the Valleys was 67.4 per cent.  The rate for East Wales stood at 72.7 per cent.
• The ILO unemployment rate in West Wales and the Valleys was 8.4 per cent of the economically active.  The rate for East Wales stood at 6.6 per cent.
• The rate of economic activity amongst people of working age in West Wales and the Valleys was 73.8 per cent.  The rate for East Wales stood at 78.0 per cent.
• ILO long-term unemployment (i.e. unemployed for 12 months or more) in Wales accounted for 20.7 per cent of the unemployed, below that for the UK as a whole (22.8 per cent).
• ILO youth unemployment (i.e. 16 to 24 year olds) in Wales was 18.6 per cent of the economically active, above the UK average of 16.8 per cent.

The Short Term Employment Surveys for the quarter ending September 2009 estimate that:

• Employee jobs in Wales fell by 39,000 (3.4 per cent) over the year to stand at 1.110 million.  UK employee jobs fell by 2.8 per cent over the same period to stand at 26.4 million.
• Employee jobs in manufacturing in Wales fell by 14,000 (9.3 per cent) over the year. Over the same period there were falls across most industries, the largest being in the service industries (down 16,000 or 3.4 per cent). There was an increase in education, health, public admin and other services (up 5,000 or 1.0 per cent).

The value of exports of goods for the four quarters up to and including quarter 3 2009 from Wales fell by 8.3 per cent over the previous four quarters and rose by 47.0 per cent over 1999.  Exports for the sum of UK countries and English regions fell by 7.6 per cent and rose by 32.2 per cent over the same periods respectively.

In 2008 there were 52 new VAT/PAYE registered enterprise births per 10,000 people of working age population in Wales. The corresponding figure for the UK was 71.

In Wales there were 511 VAT/PAYE registered enterprises per 10,000 people of working age in 2008, an increase of 4 over the year.  The corresponding figure for the UK was 614.

In 2008, Gross Value Added for Wales was £45.6 billion or £15,237 per head of population (74.3 per cent of the UK average).

We have published a summary report showing most of our data (external link) that is held on StatsWales at a Wales level. This report has been developed to demonstrate the range of statistics that we have and to assist users in finding the relevant data on StatsWales. This data held in the report is updated each time an individual dataset is updated, hence why no commentary has been included in the report.

This is a new output and we would welcome users’ views on it.

The detailed quarterly Labour Force Survey datasets on StatsWales (external link) 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 (external link)

Seasonally adjusted claimant count by Government Office Region (external link)

Seasonally adjusted claimant count by gender, Wales, UK (external link)

Contact

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

Next update

22 January 2010