Council report highlights strength of labour market in Glasgow

Published: 18 August 2016

A report to a Council committee this week underlines Glasgow's improving performance over recent years in creating jobs and reducing unemployment.

The report to the Regeneration and the Economy Committee focused on labour market trends over the years 2010-15, and key findings show improvements in all indicators, including:

• 2.6% increase in employment in the last year recorded, the third largest increase in the UK's Core Cities;
• 1.5% decrease in unemployment over the last year, the third successive year in which this has fallen;
• 17.2% increase in youth employment in the last year, the largest increase in the UK's Core Cities;
• 15.4% decrease in youth unemployment in the last year, the biggest fall in the UK and the city's lowest rate since the recession;
• 46.3% of Glasgow's working age population have degree level qualifications, a 13.8% increase since 2010, and the second highest percentage in the UK Core Cities; and
• 66.5% working age employment rate in Glasgow, the highest recorded since the introduction of these measurement in the Annual Population Survey in 2004.  The increase in this rate over the past five years was the third best in the UK Core Cities

Council Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said:

"These are fantastic figures for Glasgow and confirm that the city's economy is very much moving in the right direction.  Our performance over the past few years in increasing employment in the city - especially for young people - is welcome and a ringing endorsement of our economic strategy.  These figures highlight that we are performing better than many of our competitor cities across the UK in terms of job creation and reducing unemployment, and with the second-highest level of graduates per head of population in the country, Glasgow's future is looking bright."  

The report concludes that Glasgow City Council employability programmes, such as the £50million Glasgow Guarantee here have played a key role in the city's improving performance in the labour market, and can be found at here