Employment: Number of people in work in Wales falls

Wales, Scotland and London were the only areas of the UK to see a fall in the employment rate compared with last year

The employment rate in Wales has fallen, while remaining level across the UK as a whole.

Between May and July there were 18,000 fewer people employed in Wales than the previous three months, and 13,000 fewer than 12 months earlier.

Wales, Scotland and London were the only areas of the UK to see a fall in the employment rate compared to last year.

The employment rate in Wales was 74.7%. Across the UK it was 76.1%.

The Welsh rate was down 0.8% on the previous quarter, and down 0.4% on last year, according to the latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The data suggested about 1,487,000 people are in employment in Wales.

However the unemployment rate - the proportion of people out of work and looking for work - in Wales was down slightly to 3.8%, the same as the UK average.

Between May and July, there were 11,000 fewer people counted as unemployed than between February and April.

There has been a slight increase in the rate of the "economically inactive" in Wales on the previous quarter and over the year, in contrast to the UK as a whole.

These are people of working age who are not looking for employment, either because they have taken early retirement, cannot work because of illness, or are caring for others or studying full time.

The rate of economically inactive was up 1.4 percentage points on the previous quarter to 22.2%. This was also up 0.3 percentage points on last year. This compares with the UK economic inactivity rate of 20.8%.