Truth behind Tory employment stats

AS 2017 comes to a close, the uncertain atmosphere brought about by Brexit serves to underline the uncertainty faced by thousands of Scottish workers in their daily lives.

A quarter of a million workers in the country are not sure where their next pay cheque is coming from. More than 160,000 are low-paid self-employed who are struggling to juggle different contracts and jobs to make ends meet. Another 43,000 are on temporary contracts and up to 71,000 are on notorious zero-hours contracts.

The true scale of zero-hours work is hard to gauge – trade unions think the figure is much higher than the official estimates.

There is little reason to cheer that the Scottish statistics for zero-hours are apparently lower than the rest of the UK while the Scottish Government do not stop funding companies who use the practice.

The Tory boast of a growing economy and full-employment ring pretty hollow when you scrape away the headline figures and look at what kind of work is being created – low-paid, uncertain, temporary and zerohours in the main.

That’s why politics and politicians are important. The fight for secure work and for the kind of Brexit deal that protects skilled work and the rights of part-time and full-time workers is essential.

No one wants uncertainty in their working lives and the stewardship of the economy under Theresa May provides neither strength, nor stability to thousands of Scots at this time of year.