14 March 2012 Last updated at 07:13 ET

Unemployment rises by 1,000 in Wales

Figures show 17,000 jobs have gone here in the public sector over the past two years - under 5% of the workforce

There has been a slight rise in unemployment in Wales, according to latest figures.

For the three months to the end of January, it went up by 1,000 and now stands at 134,000.

The figures show an unemployment rate of 9.1%, which compares with a UK average of 8.4%. Unemployment on the year has risen by 10,000.

The Office for National Statistics says the claimant count for jobseekers' allowance went up by 700 in Wales.

The number now claiming jobseekers' allowance is just below 80,000.

The latest figures following two consecutive falls in unemployment in Wales, with drops of 3,000 and 1,000.

Analysis

Nick Servini BBC Wales business correspondent

---

This is a pretty decent set of unemployment figures for Wales.

The main headline figure is broadly flat, and has been for the past three months.

The most notable feature is the reduction in the number of people who are economically inactive.

It appears that many of these people are taking up many of the 21,000 new jobs that were created over the quarter.

The public sector figures are also interesting. Over the past two years the numbers employed by the state have reduced by just under five per cent, a total of 17,000 people.

I think that reduction is lower than many of the predictions that were being made two years ago.

The rate at which public sector jobs are being lost in Wales is around half the rate in England.

Overall in the UK, unemployment rose by 28,000 to 2.67 million during the three months to January.

There was also a reduction in numbers counted as economically inactivity in Wales of 14,000 during the quarter and a rise in employment in the same period of 21,000.

'Outperformed'

Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan said: "This is the third consecutive set of figures to show employment levels rising in Wales. They show we are moving in the right direction as we try to rebuild the economy.

"However, there remains much still to do, with the unemployment rate in Wales still unacceptably high at 9.1%."

The Welsh government said there were "encouraging signs" emerging in Wales.

Business minister Edwina Hart said: "For the third month in a row the Welsh labour market employment rate and inactivity rate has outperformed the UK as a whole, over both the quarter and the year."

"We are doing all we can as a devolved government to stimulate the economy to reduce the barriers businesses face, encourage demand and investing for the longer term."

The latest public sector employment figures have also been released, up to the end of 2011.

They show that 335,000 people worked in the public sector in Wales by the end of last year - a rise of 2,000 on the quarter. But there was an 8,000 reduction during the whole of 2011, a cut of 2.2%. That compares with a reduction in England over the same period of 4.7%.