STUC Comment - Labour market statistics
Commenting on the newly released Labour market figures, STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said:
"Today’s Labour market figures reveal the extent to which working people have been misled by politicians with their hollow promises of economic recovery.
"In Scotland, unemployment is up, employment is down and economic inactivity has increased. This is the result of a UK economic strategy predicated on engineering a recession and making workers, not profiteering companies, pay the price to bring down inflation.
"While the UK saw relatively strong wage growth in the quarter to June, pay was still outstripped by inflation. Perhaps most concerningly of all, PAYE figures for July show a significant fall in pay. Far from marking a turning point in the cost-of-living crisis, these figures mark a continuation of it. Workers in Scotland have lost an average of £1500 in the last two years and they are losing more still.
"It’s clear that the strategy from the UK Government and Bank of England is not only wrong but it’s actively damaging communities throughout Scotland. We need urgent action from both governments, including the Scottish Government revising their punitive public sector pay strategy, to give families and workers the support and help they need during this cost-of-living crisis."
END
Notes to editors:
Full information from the ONS can be found here.
RSSGeneral Secretary’s newspaper columns
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