STUC on Labour Market Statistics

September 16th 2015

STUC on Labour Market Statistics

September 16th 2015

Commenting after the latest official labour market statistics were published this morning, Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary said:

“Despite Ministers in both the Scottish and UK Governments continuing to run highly optimistic lines, the truth is that the Scottish labour market is now stagnating with unemployment still over 55,000 higher than spring 2008. Employment is lower and unemployment higher than last autumn. This was not a positive set of statistics.

“The period of strong jobs growth for women now also seems to be reversing with a 5,000 rise in women’s unemployment and a 17,000 fall in employment over the last quarter.

“The one bright spot is stronger wage growth for the UK as a whole. However, real wages are still a long way from recovering their pre-recession value and no up to date credible statistics are available for Scotland.”

ENDS

Contact: Stephen Boyd 0141 337 8100