The Datum Report

Standing view · business · South West Wales

Businesses employing 5 to 9 people in South West Wales has been falling, while businesses employing 10 to 19 people has been rising.

How this was decided

A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about South West Wales. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.

The 4 measures that formed this view

Also published on this topic, but not counted

These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.