Mark Isherwood
North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has hit out at the Welsh Government for distorting youth unemployment figures and called for action to address the fact that economic inactivity rates in Wales are still higher than those in England and Scotland.
Mr Isherwood challenged the Economy Minister Edwina Hart over the matter in the Assembly Chamber this week and asked her what action she is taking to ensure Jobs Growth Wales and other Welsh Government employment schemes work alongside UK Government work programmes.
He said:
“Although the number of people not in employment in Wales has fallen from 627,000 to 547,000 over the past four years, total economic inactivity rates are still higher than those in England and Scotland, and youth unemployment on the official measure is still higher—in fact, the highest among UK nations. I think that the figures that the Welsh Government has been using came with a health warning that they were experimental and to be used with caution.
“Given the recommendation of the Welsh Affairs Committee for Jobs Growth Wales and other Welsh Government schemes to work alongside the UK Work Programmes that I have raised with your colleagues before, what discussion are you having with your colleagues about how the benefit of the schemes joined up, as the Welsh Affairs Committee called for, can be for the mutual benefit of everybody?”
The Minister replied:
“We are a very joined-up Government here, and, if we see any benefit in joining up with anything that the UK Government does, we do so.”
Labour’s First Minister Carwyn Jones has been caught using dodgy statistics to back up his claim that youth unemployment in Wales is the lowest of all UK nations, when the most authoritative data from the International Labour Organisation shows it’s the highest.
The First Minister made the claim this week using tentative data, which carries a health warning that it is based on a ‘relatively small sample size’, is ‘experimental’ and which ’should be used with caution’.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show Wales has the highest International Labour Organisation unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds of all the UK nations, currently standing at 22.5%. This has been the case continuously for the past five years.
