Written question WQ93954
- Asked by
- Andrew RT DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 6 days
Question
Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the latest economy statistics published by the ONS showing that the unemployment rate in Wales has increased to 4 per cent?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
Care needs to be taken when assessing what is happening to the labour market in Wales. It is advised that a range of data sources are considered, and changes are viewed over a longer time series, to identify the broad trends.
Data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are particularly volatile at present and should be treated with caution as the data may not be representative of what is happening in the labour market in Wales. LFS estimates and the changes between periods appear to be inconsistent with other labour market data. As a result, the current headline labour market statistics from the LFS are no longer classified as ‘accredited official statistics’ and are instead classified by ONS as ‘official statistics in development’.
The ONS are continuing their work to improve their labour market estimates, with a more robust data source expected to be provided through its Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS). An update on when the first estimates from the TLFS will be available is expected in early 2025.
It is recommended to use the LFS data alongside other measures of the labour market like the Annual Population Survey and administrative sources such as payrolled employees from HMRC’s real time information. These data sources suggest the Welsh labour market appears to be following similar trends to the rest of the UK.