James Evans has told the First Minister he wants to see more higher-paid and better-skilled jobs being created in Mid Wales.

The Brecon and Radnorshire MS said at the Senedd yesterday (Tuesday) that the Chancellor’s recent autumn statement went some way to helping people facing cost-of-living pressures.

He said it contained a cut in national insurance - one of the biggest tax cuts in a generation - and a rise in the minimum wage and benefits in line with inflation.

Mr Evans said there had been cross-party support on that issue in the Senedd for a number of years.

But he added: “Some of the levers to helping people with the cost of living also sit with the Welsh Government.

“One way in which you can help people with the cost of living is getting people into higher-skilled and better-paid jobs.

“I would like to know what the Welsh Government is doing in Mid Wales to help people into higher-paid and better-skilled jobs which can help them with the cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr Evans told First Minister, Mark Drakeford, that is something the Welsh Government can do to help people who are struggling.

In his response, the First Minister said he would "set to one side the assertions" Mr Evans made in the introduction to his question.

He said that Wales currently has more people in work today than ever before and has lower unemployment levels than other parts of the UK.

The First Minster also said the gap between the rest of the UK and Wales, "as far as people who are outside the labour market is concerned", has halved during the period of devolution.

Citing the Resolution Foundation, an independent think-tank focussed on improving the living standards for those on low to middle incomes, he said: "...of the jobs that have been created over the last 10 years in Wales, more of them are full time rather than part time, more of them are in the top half of the income distribution than the bottom half, and more of them are taken by women than are taken by men."

The First Minister added: "There is a huge amount that has already been done here in Wales, and there was not a penny piece in the autumn statement to support the work that the Welsh Government does in helping people to secure the very skills that James Evans pointed to."