The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that unemployment in Scotland has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in more than three years. They show that the number of people recorded fell by 11,000 between December and February. With 197,000 out of work, the Scottish jobless rate is 7.3%, half a percentage point below the UK average of 7.9%. At the same time, employment rose by 39,000, to just over 2.5 million, the biggest rise in 12 years.
These figures were released along with other official data, showing that the Scottish economy grew by 0.5% in the final three months of 2012. That contrasts with the UK economy as a whole which contracted by 0.3% during the same period.
Michael Moore
Scottish Secretary
The politicians for the most part reacted positively to the news. In the view of Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, the figures showed “…further signs of a positive outlook for employment opportunities in Scotland and they are important news for each and every person who has moved into a job. There is more to be done, but we should be encouraged by the increase in those moving into employment and the government will continue to work hard to balance the economy and get more people back into work.”
For the Scottish Finance Secretary, John Swinney, the figures meant that Scotland now had “a higher employment rate and lower unemployment rate than the UK, stronger economic growth and youth unemployment figures that continue to improve and outperform the UK.” He went on to point out that Scottish Power had announced plans to create thousands of jobs in the West of Scotland. This, he said, was a “…testament to our skills base and is welcome news for the area. We can build on these figures for the future but we can’t allow the UK government’s economic policies to derail the positive developments we are seeing in Scotland.”
However, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman, Ken Macintosh, while welcoming any signs of improvement in the jobs market in Scotland, added that there was “so much more that this government could and should be doing. Scottish women and young people are disproportionately affected by this recession, and the growth in the numbers of long-term unemployed will leave a scar for years to come.”
CBI Scotland’s
David Lonsdale
CBI Scotland also welcomed the growth in the economy, its assistant director, David Lonsdale pointing out that “after a difficult start to the year it is encouraging that the Scottish economy ended 2012 on an encouraging note, driven by a broader based pick-up in activity than in the previous quarter. Nothing however can be taken for granted, underlining the need for continued action to aid businesses to take full advantage of the recovery. If we want to see a more vigorous recovery and a more sustainable economic model in future then Scotland has to become less reliant on public spending, with a far greater emphasis on private sector growth.”
Andy Willox, Scottish policy convenor of the Federation of Small Businesses’, acknowledged that the statistics were welcome but added that the country couldn’t “underestimate the scale of the task ahead of us to bolster growth and boost jobs over the medium term. Small businesses will be vital to any recovery. Further, we must remember that the Scottish economy doesn’t perform uniformly across the board, and that unemployment varies dramatically from community to community. As the Scottish public sector retrenches, agencies, councils and central government must communicate and co-ordinate to ensure that the same vulnerable communities aren’t hit time and time again.”
Graham Smith STUC
For the trade unions, Grahame Smith, the STUC’s General Secretary, said that the labour market statistics for Scotland were “the most positive for some months with the fall in unemployment supplemented by a rise in employment which is on the face of it very impressive. However a couple of caveats must be applied: again it was almost exclusively men who benefitted from the the fall in unemployment as women continue to struggle badly in the current labour market. The latest statistics also suggest that the quality of jobs being created remains poor: employee and full-time employment continues to fall as temporary and self-employment rises. Very long-term unemployment also increased again across all age groups.”