Welsh Economy Loses Momentum, Despite Positive Signs
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In September, data about the Welsh economy suggested that the country had seen a rise in employment within the private sector. This rise implied that the rate of job creation was at the highest rate in the history of the survey. However, despite this, the economic upturn seems to have lost its momentum, with output rising at the slowest pace in over a year and a half.
In September, data about the Welsh economy suggested that the country had seen a rise in employment within the private sector. This rise implied that the rate of job creation was at the highest rate in the history of the survey. However, despite this, the economic upturn seems to have lost its momentum, with output rising at the slowest pace in over a year and a half.
Although order intakes have continued to rise, and some companies have raised their workforce numbers, the Lloyds Bank commercial banking and business activity index numbers have fallen. Now at 56.2, from 58.5, the index is at its lowest point since March of 2013.
The Private Sector and Unemployment
Data released in September suggested that there has been a sharp rise in employment numbers within the Welsh private sector. However, the latest job figures for Wales have shown that the number of ‘inactive’ individuals is increasing. The most recent figures have suggested that the share of the population who are economically inactive, (meaning not in work, nor in receipt of the dole), is at 41.7%, an increase from last quarter’s 40.6%. Furthermore, the unemployment rate, which had previously been falling, has seen a small increase from 6.6% to 6.7%.
Seven percent is not doing anything for the country? That is a monstrosity! That makes California look like Texas. That unemployment number, like the one in America, is obviously not completely true.
Furthermore, the employment rate within Wales has also seen some negative numbers, down to 54.4% from 55.5%. For men, the unemployment rate dropped by approximate 0.2 points, to 7.9%, whereas for women, it has increased by 0.3 points, to 5.3%. It seems that in Wales, there has been a rise of economic inactivity within unemployment figures, and at this point in 2014, there are 39,000 fewer people at work than there were last year.
Among women of working age, the rate of economic inactivity has risen to over 30%, and Wales experienced the largest decrease in the employment rate of any region throughout the UK in the past quarter.
What the Welsh Government Needs to do Next
The suggestion has been that the Welsh government has to respond to data proving inactivity using every tool at its disposal to create more jobs. Why not cut taxes and regulations which have proven to produce jobs throughout history as it has in Texas and Florida? Cuts that have been made in the past to the successful ‘young recruits’ apprenticeship scheme may have only exacerbated issues in the job creation department.
However, a spokesperson for the Welsh government argued that the figures of today have shown that those claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Wales has continued to fall, standing at its lowest rate since 2008. Maybe because there are no jobs? Considering the UK as a whole, the number of people who are currently claiming jobseekers allowance has fallen beneath one million for the first time in 6 years. For the 22nd month in a row, the claimant count has fallen, and the jobless total amounted to 2.02 million in the quarter ending July.
That is still astonishing high.