6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the latest employment rate in Wales compared to the rest of the UK? OAQ(5)0067(FM)

The improving employment rate in Wales continues to outperform all other nations of the UK. We are ahead of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, with the fastest growing rate of employment and the sharpest declining rate of unemployment over the last 12 months.

Well, our record is obviously excellent, and colleges like the Cardiff and Vale College that provide excellent further education for a range of subjects ensure that people have the skills they need to get work. What work are we doing to ensure that we are developing the skills that employers are going to need in the future so that we’re not having to rely on attracting people from other countries who may be a lot poorer than us?

Well, one example, of course, is Jobs Growth Wales. It has been hugely successful, with a success rate of over 80 per cent in terms of young people going on to employment, or to further or higher education schemes, funded by European money, and of course it’s a scheme that has helped so many young people get in to work. The genesis of that scheme was that we talked to small and medium-sized businesses that said to us they wanted to take people on, but they couldn’t find the time or the money to do it. Jobs Growth Wales allowed them to do that, and there are now many, many young people in employment because of that scheme, and they have the skills that they need for the future.

I think the fact that Welsh unemployment is now lower than the UK average is an important watershed moment. It’s happened a few times over the 30 years, but unfortunately all too rarely. Given that and the employment rate now, the difference is very small, would he accept that when we compare that to the fact that, overall, with our GVA per capita, there is a 30 per cent gap, the underlying problem in the Welsh economy is not jobs, per se, but the quality of jobs? It’s a productivity problem that we have. Do we need to shift our economic strategy to focus on that?

There are elements of—. There are issues of productivity for the whole of the UK and Wales is no exception in that regard. We have a legacy from the 1980s and 1990s of an economic policy that got rid of well-paid jobs and instead put in place jobs that were amongst the lowest paid in western Europe at the time. That’s not the economic policy that anybody—he or I—would want to see in the future. We are seeing more and more investment coming in to Wales through good-quality jobs. We’ve seen, for example, companies like Aston Martin, like TVR, like CGI—these are well-paid, skilled jobs. The challenge for us is to make sure that our people have the skills that an employer needs in order for that employer to prosper in Wales. Increasingly, that is happening. So, I would expect to see GVA increase over the course of the next few years, given the fact that the quality of the jobs that we’re attracting now, and the money that they pay, is in the right direction. We’re no longer a low-wage economy, a low-skill economy. That was what Wales was presented as in the 1980s and early 1990s. Never again.

The Government has previously announced nine priority business sectors for growth in Wales. Five of those sectors—tourism, food and drink, construction, life science and creative industries—have experienced a declining workforce in the last quarter. I wonder if the First Minister could outline the reasons for that.

I caution the Member to look at a quarter as being particularly representative. It’s better to look at the longer term trend. So, for example, if we look at unemployment and employment rates in Wales, we see a trend that’s been in place for more than a year of unemployment dropping. You can’t take a quarter and say, ‘Well, that’s typical of the economy in terms of the trend.’

In terms of what we see in Wales, we see unemployment now, as I say, lower than Scotland, lower than England, lower than Northern Ireland. It’s the same with youth unemployment. I was at the British-Irish Council last week and, again, we saw that youth unemployment in Wales is lower than in Scotland, England or Northern Ireland. It’s almost as low as Jersey, which is historically very, very unusual for us. That is a sign that the active policy that we have pursued to promote Wales around the world and to attract investment and jobs from around the world is working. Whether that will still be the case after Thursday, we’ll have to wait and see.