The huge army of economically inactive in Wales that would fill the Principality Stadium seven times

Wales has the unenviable record of having the lowest employment rate and highest level of people classed as being economically inactive anywhere in the UK. And latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the rising number of working age adults not seeking to be part of the labour market would fill the Principality Stadium seven times.

The latest quarterly figures from the ONS, for December to February this year, shows only 69.1% (1.4 million) of working age adults, aged 16-64, in Wales are in employment. The number in employment declined 42,000 on the quarter and 14,000 compared to a year earlier. For the UK a whole the level was 74.5%. In England it was 74.9%. Scotland 74.2% and Northern Ireland 71.7%. The highest rate was in south-east of England at 78.3%.

Wales also has the highest number of working age adults categorised as being economically inactive at 28.1%, compared to 22.1% for the UK as whole. England has a rate of 21.7%, Scotland 22.6% and Northern Ireland 26.7%. The lowest rate is in the south-east of England at 18.4%.

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The total number of economically inactive in Wales is a huge 535,000, which is the equivalent of the Principality Stadium being filled to capacity seven times. Over the quarter the number of economically inactive in Wales rose 37,000 and 54,000 on the year.

The economic inactivity rate, which includes students and those on long-term sick, is the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 who are not in the labour market - defined as not seeking work within the last four weeks, or unable to start work in the next two. For the UK as a whole there are 9.4 million economically inactive.

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies said: "It is shameful that we continue to see a rising disparity in participation in our economy between Labour-run Wales and the rest of the UK."

"After 25 years of Labour governments, the employment rate is collapsing, as pay packets lag behind other parts of the UK and economic inactivity soars."

"The Welsh Conservatives want to see the Labour Government's focus shift to growing the Welsh economy, with more jobs for the people of Wales, not more jobs for politicians in Cardiff Bay."

Enterprise academic Prof Dylan Jones-Evans said: "Simply put, Wales has fewer people in employment than the rest of the UK and more people out of the economy. Given this, the question is what are the UK and Welsh governments going to do to address this as the jobs situation is quickly becoming a serious problem for the future of the Welsh economy?"

The only positive from the latest data, although up on the quarter and a year earlier, is that the unemployment rate in Wales of 3.7% (55,000 people) is below the UK average of 4.2% (1.4 million). The number of unemployment in Wales was up 7,000 on the previous quarter and 3,000 on the year.

The ONS, though, has warned the data should still be treated with "caution" as it continues to overhaul its labour force survey due to low response rates, with the full revamped version not due to be introduced until September.

The Welsh Government emphasised the in development status of the ONS' new approach, which as a result meant the latest dataset might not be reflective of what is actually happening in the labour market.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: "It's clear that UK Government's failure to stimulate economic growth has negatively impacted the employment market across the UK, with Wales no exception."

"Despite this, we are continuing to work towards a more equal and prosperous Wales, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential and to play their full part in our economy and our society, and where more people feel confident about planning their future in Wales."

"Our economic mission sets out how we are using the levers we do have to narrow the skills divide, support better jobs and in turn tackle poverty, with our Plan for Employability and Skills prioritising those most in need of help. This includes supporting people to stay in work and those further away from the labour market to find employment."

Joshua Miles, director for Wales at the Learning and Work Institute, said despite debate over the data, there is evidence of an established pattern in Wales of reducing employment levels and increasing economic inactivity.

He added: "The labour market in Wales continues to ease with falls in employment and rises in economic inactivity. Indeed, the data suggests in the last year 54,000 people in Wales have become economically inactive that's roughly equivalent to a town the size of Bridgend no longer in employment or looking for work."

"Whilst there are questions over the quality of the data in Wales in the short term, the longer-term trend is clear fewer people are in employment and economic inactivity, driven in particular by long-term sickness, is rising."

"Our previous research has shown that there are 146,000 working-age people inactive because of long-term sickness or disabilities. If we're going to tackle this, the Welsh and UK governments need to develop a shared vision of how to get the economy growing and offer more and better help to find work to people who are economically inactive."

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: "Recent trends of falling vacancy numbers and slowing earnings growth have continued this month albeit at a reduced pace. But with the rate of inflation also slowing, real earnings growth has increased and is now at its highest rate in nearly two and a half years."

"At the same time, we are now seeing tentative signs that the jobs market is beginning to cool, with both a fall in the headline employment rate from our survey and a drop in the total number of people on payrolls from HMRC data."

"However, we would recommend caution when looking at the size of the fall in headline employment, as previously highlighted lower sample sizes mean there is greater volatility in quarterly changes than was the case."