The Scottish Labour Market 2006

This report has drawn together our research into the Scottish labour market, supplemented by other evidence around specific topics such as migration, earnings and educational attainment.  The main conclusions drawn from our analysis are:

The Scottish Labour Market

• Scotland’s labour market works well for many people and in many places, but for a significant minority of people and places it does not.
• Scotland’s education and training system produces labour of high quality when compared internationally and which meets most employers’ needs most of the time.
• Particular areas where the labour market does not work so well are around very small firms, growing businesses and those at the lower end of the occupational scale.

Scotland’s Population and the Supply of Labour

• Scotland’s population is rising. The size of the workforce will be broadly static over the foreseeable future. The main issue will be around the age structure of the workforce, with a greater proportion in the older age groups.
• There are some 300,000 people in Scotland who say that they would work if there was a suitable job available. Scotland will have sufficient people to meet any foreseeable upturn in the demand for labour.

The Demand for Labour and the Views of Employers

• Attracting skilled staff is a middle-ranking challenge for Scottish employers.
• Most Scottish employers invest in training for their staff. They are mainly satisfied with the training supplied by colleges and private providers.
• EU enlargement has broadened the labour pool from which Scottish employers can draw. The impact on the labour market has been moderate, but broadly positive. Migrant workers from recent accession states are employed generally in low-paid, low-skilled work.
• The recent increase in graduate numbers has been what Scotland’s economy needed. Graduates have traditionally earned more, on average, than non-graduates. This remains true today, even with the large increase in graduate numbers.

The Labour Market in the Future

• There will be modest growth in the number of jobs to 2014.
• There will be considerable opportunities in all sectors and occupations as existing workers retire, migrate or leave the workforce for other reasons.
• Employment in the service sector will continue to increase, alongside continued decline in primary and manufacturing jobs, albeit at a slower rate than in the past.
• There will be an increase in the number of jobs which require higher-level skills. There will also be a smaller increase in sales and customer service and personal service occupations.
• Scotland’s workforce will be increasingly better-qualified as younger workers with better qualifications enter the labour market and older workers with fewer qualifications leave it.

More details about the Scottish Labour Market 2006 can be found in the  Full Report below. For further information about Futureskills Scotland, please Contact Us.

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