<p>The Employment Rate</p>

Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 21 June 2016.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 2:21, 21 June 2016

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.