POLITICIANS gave a cautious welcome to news that there has been a rise in employment of 21,000 during the three months to January.

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan and Welsh Government business minister Edwina Hart said the figures showed some encouraging signs - with both rival politicians highlighting a third consecutive rise in the number of people who had managed to get a job.

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

In Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the claimant count for jobseekers' allowance went up by 700 in Wales - putting the total figure at just below 80,000.

Welsh unemployment was still 7.9% higher than the previous year.

More than a third of 16 to 17-year-olds, 36.7%, were out of work in Wales, as were more than a quarter, 25.7%, of 18 to 24-year-olds.

On the flipside, there had been a reduction in the numbers counted as economically inactive in Wales of 14,000 during the quarter.

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%.’’ Welsh Government business minister Edwina Hart said there were "encouraging signs’’, when speaking to the Assembly's enterprise committee.

"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,’’ she added.

"I think our policies in helping and assisting companies are making a difference within those figures.