Top of the League for Computer use - Bottom of the League for IT Jobs
According to the Internet banking company, Egg, 43% of people in Wales use
a computer and 38% have access to the Internet. This is the highest
amongst the countries of Britain (England, Wales and Scotland).
According to evidence presented to the Assembly, Wales with 5% of the
population of Britain has only 2% of IT related jobs.
How does disability affect your chances of a job?
According to Epilepsy Wales the unemployment rate is 34 per cent amongst
people with epilepsy. The national average is 9 per cent.
The Western Mail is the only national newspaper for Wales. It carries
classified advertising for job vacancies under 11 different headings.
On 19 February 2000 there were only two jobs advertised.
Nursing - Unfilled Places and an Over-Supply of Applicants
Welsh hospitals are coping with extreme difficulty. One major reason is the
shortage of nursing staff and large number of vacancies which go unfilled.
At the same time the number of young people applying to train as nurses
greatly excedes the number of training places.
The new Welsh Assembly building - the symbol of Wales's newly acquired measure
of self-determination - is to be built according to the design of an English
architect.
A firm of chartered accountants reported that in 1995-2000 average farm
profits declined by 90 per cent.
Is the future of the Welsh language in safe hands?
With the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales many people believed
that it would lead to a resurgence of the Welsh language.
The Welsh language is under-represented in speeches made in the Assembly -
the percentage of speeches in Welsh is much lower than the percentage of
Assembly Members (AMs) who speak Welsh. This is largely due to the pressure
on Welsh-speaking AMs to gain access to the English-language media. The
pressure is particularly great on AMs who represent constituencies which
have only a small minority of Welsh speakers.
There is one member of the Cabinet responsible for the Welsh language. The
current and previous (as of October 2000) holders of the post are
both non-Welsh-speaking.
In recent years the exam results in both major national examinations
(GCSE at age 16) and A Levels (at age 18) by pupils in Welsh schools has
been on average significantly better than the average for the rest of
Britain.
In spite of this, unemployment is higher in Wales than the average for
the rest of Britain and average wages are lower.
A disproportionate number of the jobs are low-wage and low-skill. There
is a dependence on foreign firms who are subsidised to set up factories
in Wales. Very few of the management and engineering jobs go to local people.
This month (October 2000) Panasonic joined a growing number of firms
transferring production to Eastern Europe - to the Czech Republic in the
case of Panasonic's television production.
Many of these firms where enticed with generous support from the WDA
(Welsh Development Agency) in addition to European funding.
Most of the jobs involved are low-skill production jobs. Although labour
may be cheap in Wales compared to elsewhere in the European Union, it
is not as cheap as in Eastern Europe. The Czech Republic is particularly
attractive because of the likelihood it will join the EU.
The strategy of promoting Wales as the cheap back door into the European
Union appears to be failing.
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This page was last updated on 26 November 2000 __________
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