STUC on labour market statistics

August 14th 2013

STUC on labour market statistics

August 14th 2013

Commenting after the latest set of labour markets statistics for Scotland were published, Grahame Smith, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) General Secretary said:

“These latest statistics confirm what the STUC has been arguing throughout 2013: unemployment in Scotland is stagnating at a high level. Following a significant fall in early autumn 2012, unemployment has hardly moved.

“This week has seen publication of more survey evidence supposedly confirming the strength of the UK’s recovery from a prolonged period of economic depression. However, workers experiencing rapidly declining real wages and rising insecurity of employment certainly don’t feel as if they’re benefitting from an improving economy and labour market.

“A recovery based on house price inflation and a falling savings ratio is hardly sustainable. If the recovery is to become firmly embedded and the full-time, permanent jobs that most workers desire are to be created, the Coalition must urgently revisit its strategy. Attempting to turbo charge the failed pre-2008 economic model might prove politically expedient for the Chancellor but it is bound to cause significant long-term damage to the economy”.

ENDS

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