UNEMPLOYMENT rates in Cardiff fell by 4.7 per cent in the year 2013-2014, one of the biggest drops anywhere in the UK.
The number of people registered unemployed totalled 6 per cent of Cardiffians in the three months to September 2014, showing a return to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis and taking the jobless percentage lower than in London.
The figures from the Local Labour Force Survey showed a significant gender gap in employment, with 95.9 per cent of women in work compared with 92.2 per cent of men.
Cardiff currently has the lowest rates of unemployment in South Wales, compared with 8.4 per cent of people unemployed in Swansea, 7.8 per cent in the Vale of Glamorgan and 7.9 per cent in Caerphilly.
Cardiff also has better unemployment rates than Bristol and Newport, the two cities Cardiff Council recently announced its intention to form a “southwest powerhouse economic region” with to compete with business in London and the north.
Bristol saw 7.7 per cent unemployment in September 2014, while Newport was slightly higher at 8 per cent.
Unemployment in London fell to 6.3 per cent in the same period.
The ONS announced this week that UK unemployment has hit its lowest level since records began, with a national jobless rate of 5.7 per cent.
