Wales’ employment rate remains the lowest of all of the UK nations.

The latest Labour market statistics for Wales, covering March 2025, indicates that unemployment remains the highest in the UK for the eighth month in a row at 5.2% and has risen significantly in the last month from 4.8%.

Welsh Conservatives have proposed an overhaul of business rates to combat the fact that business deaths continue to outpace business births.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Energy, and Senedd Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Samuel Kurtz MS said:"Under Labour, our economy is failing: unemployment is rising, and Wales remains the least competitive part of the UK.

“Business closures continue to outnumber new start-ups, and we are burdened with the highest business rates in Britain.

“Welsh Conservatives want to build a Wales that is open for business. We would overhaul business rates, slashing them for town centres and abolishing them entirely for small businesses, and scrap Labour’s damaging tourism tax to stop penalising a vital sector of our economy."