The latest unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there were 229,000 Scots looking for work in the three months from August to October, up by 25,000 on the previous quarter.
The unemployment rate here is now 8.5 per cent, slightly higher than the UK average of 8.3 per cent. Unemployment in the UK as a whole rose by 128,000 to 2.64 million.
However, other figures show a major change in the pattern of employment in Scotland. For the first time in over a decade, the private sector’s share of the jobs market has grown, to over 77 per cent. In the past year, it grew year-on-year by 30,300 in the third quarter, apparently more than making up for the fall of 23,500 in public sector jobs over the same period.
The figures produced widely divergent responses from the political parties in Scotland, the trade unions and business leaders. First minister Alex Salmond called for an “urgent” UK-wide summit involving the UK government and three devolved administrations, to discuss a programme of jobs creation.
“The UK government's economic policy is in a state of collapse, and the prime minister's policy of isolation in Europe can only makes things worse,” Mr Salmond said. “The Office of Budget Responsibility has reported that the UK economy is already contracting in the final quarter of this year, and the coalition must change course.”
He described the announcements in the autumn statement as “too little, too late” adding that “Scotland's capital budget will still be cut by £3bn over the spending period, and over 70 per cent of the Barnett capital consequentials will not be available until after next year, when the problem is now.”
Scottish secretary Michael Moore acknowledged that the figures were disappointing. But he stressed that the government’s main priority was “to return this country to sustainable and more balanced growth. This is not the time to introduce further uncertainty into our economy but for both the UK and Scottish governments to work together for the benefit of the people who are looking for long-lasting quality jobs.”
In the view of Scottish Labour, an urgent change of economic policy is needed from the Scottish government. The party said the unemployment figures had reached "disaster levels". According to finance spokesman Richard Baker, “the Scottish economy has grown even more slowly than the rest of the UK, and now we see the same happening to jobs.
“Alex Salmond and John Swinney's failure to deliver an effective economic strategy and stalling on investing in infrastructure,” he added, “has pushed Scotland into a vicious cycle of lower investment, fewer jobs and slower growth. We need to see far more creative ideas to support businesses taking on graduates.”
For the trade unions, Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC, described the figures as “simply shocking”. He added that the rise in Scottish unemployment was much higher than anticipated by independent forecasters.
“With long-term unemployment rising,” he said, “and many now facing their second or third Christmas on the dole, it is essential that the coalition revisits its failed economic strategy. Unemployed people do not wish to be patronised by the chancellor trying to blame the impact of his own domestic blunders on troubles in the eurozone.
“Instead, they will want to see a new approach; one that makes fiscal consolidation contingent on growth and much more balanced towards fair taxation. They need to see a genuine strategy for jobs and growth; not the series of irrelevant supply side interventions announced in the autumn statement which will simply re-embed a failed economic model.”
For the Federation of Small Businesses, Scottish policy convenor Andy Willox OBE said that the figures made “grim reading for government at all levels. They represent not only a complicated problem that will take co-ordinated and concerted action to resolve, but a traumatic period in many individuals’ and families’ lives.
“The employment that the small business community can create and sustain is now more important than ever. We need to see practical measures to help growing businesses to take on employees as part of a wider package to stimulate business confidence, alongside moves to encourage a new generation of entrepreneurs.”
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce were extremely concerned by the figures. Chief executive Liz Cameron warned that the high levels of youth unemployment were of particular concern. “We cannot afford for a generation of our young people to lose out on the development of their skills,” she said.
“With businesses across Scotland battling to see their way through to the general economic recovery, they need the right support from governments north and south of the border to employ more young people and gear up for future success.”
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