In advance of the new labour market statistics for Scotland which will be published tomorrow, the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has released its latest estimate of Scotland’s full-time employment deficit, which at 502,655 or 18.6%, is far in excess of the unemployment rate of 8.5%. On publication of this estimate, Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary said:
“Despite the rapid increase in Scottish unemployment at the end of last year, the STUC remains frustrated by the complacency of many politicians and policymakers on the current state of the labour market. The focus only on headline figures serves to obscure some of the most worrying labour market trends.
“Consequently, the STUC developed this new estimate which counts those people currently identified as being ILO unemployed, those who are inactive but recorded as wanting a job and those currently identified as ‘underemployed’. In making the calculation we are careful to adjust figures to account for recent changes in the labour market and the number of unemployed people is adjusted to match the proportion of full-time jobs in the economy. The STUC is convinced that this is a robust and conservative estimate.
“The figure of 502,655, a rate of 18.6%, is stunning and should cause government at all levels to pause and reflect. There are simply far too many people in Scotland at this time unable to access the quality, full-time work opportunities necessary to provide for a decent standard of living for themselves and their families.
“Of course, the UK Government is continuing down the road of austerity, cutting jobs when they are most needed. There is little sign of hope for the half million people in Scotland who are unemployed, inactive or underemployed”.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Our full time employment deficit estimate published in September 2011 was 468,301. A rate of 17.25%.
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