11. To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent assessment he has made of levels of employment in Wales; and if he will make a statement. (315874)

Latest figures show that the employment level in Wales increased by 6,000 on last quarter, to 1.304 million, an increase of 94,000 since 1997.

The Government’s extra investment in jobs, education and training is making a real difference in Wales, helping people through the recession and preventing the kind of unemployment we saw haunt Wales in the eighties and nineties. This fragile recovery would be wrecked by the Tories.