Scotland needs radical jobs plan

I was pleased to hear the announcement last week that a new contact centre at Peel Park, via AGO Outsourcing, will create up to 500 new jobs in the town as part of a multimillion pound investment over the next few years.

It’s welcome to see new investment coming into East Kilbride, especially after the withdrawal of other major employers in the town in recent years, and these new jobs will be a boost to the area.

As a student I worked in Motorola when it still employed thousands of people.

The significant job losses caused by the withdrawal of companies like Motorola, Freescale and RollsRoyce, including the latest announcement by HMRC, have undoubtedly caused a tough time for the local economy.

The most recent labour market statistics for East Kilbride show that 3.9 per cent of the population is unemployed, in addition to a high level (over 20 per cent) of economic inactivity.

The changes in the Scottish economy over the last few decades, with the decline of heavy industry and manufacturing jobs, have undoubtedly been challenging for towns like East Kilbride. The shift from manufacturing to a service-based economy has meant a narrowing of employment opportunities for many workers in Scotland, particularly for young people.

The rise of precarious types of working such as zero-hours contracts and the suppression of real wages over the last decade mean it has also become harder for working people to make ends meet.

It can no longer be said that having a job is the best route out of financial hardship when fair work is denied to too many of our fellow citizens.

In her report to the First Minster ‘The Life Chances of Young People’, published earlier this month, the Scottish Government’s independent advisor on poverty and inequality Naomi Eisenstadt makes a series of recommendations about the position of young people in the labour market.

These include improving the support available to young people through careers services, increasing pay by ensuring everyone receives the national living wage, regardless of age, and improving job security by abolishing zero-hours contracts.

We need radical action to transform the Scottish economy and put Scotland at the forefront of investment in jobs for the future.

That’s why Scottish Labour launched our industrial strategy at the beginning of the summer, setting out our radical blueprint to put Scotland at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution.

Our plan would end exploitative zero-hour contracts and increase the national living wage to £10 per hour to abolish the blight of a low-wage economy.

We would increase investment in education, particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in order to combat the skills shortage we are facing when it comes to filling the jobs of the future.

At the heart of this plan is our vision to transform our economy so that we can have high-quality and well-paid jobs. We all deserve to be part of a system that works for the many, not the few.

It has become harder for working people to make ends meet