Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 19 October 2022.
Thank you for the questions. We are certainly looking to improve employment prospects for people who are economically inactive, particularly those aged over 50. We have seen, particularly pronounced at the end and post pandemic, a number of people who have made choices, some of those deliberate choices about wanting to get a different balance between work and life, but also a range of other people who have found themselves with a tale of long-term ill health, and other people who have acquired new and different caring responsibilities. There is a range of different reasons why people have left the labour market. Some of those people, anecdotally, are looking to come back, and that's largely driven by the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that people need to come back to work. What we want to do is to make sure that people are in the best place possible to return to the labour market and to give them the skills and the opportunity to enter the labour market for a job that they will find fulfilling and helpful with their financial challenges and opportunities.
When it comes to migration, actually, one of the few good things, I think, that were in Kwasi Kwarteng's growth plan was a different conversation about migration that would have upset lots of his own team. But, actually, we consistently made the case with the UK Government that we need a different approach to migration. For key sectors of our economy, including public services, the rhetoric and the image that the UK Government does not want people from other parts of the world to come here to work or to be part of our community—and you see this again in the current Home Secretary and the way she has spoken about people—is entirely self-defeating. We want a much more sensible approach that is driven by the needs of the economy, yes, but also driven by an approach that is decent and recognises other human beings in their basic humanity. I don't think that is always the case with the current UK Government.