Tackling unemployment in Dundee

The challenge of creating new opportunities for thousands of unemployed workers in Dundee was top of the agenda at a major conference yesterday.

Dundee City Council chief executive David Martin said the gathering of employers came at an “increasingly confident” moment in Dundee’s history.

However, he said not everyone was feeling the benefit of the city’s economic renaissance, with thousands of citizens still facing hardship.

“We have 100,000 to 110,000 people doing pretty well and we have 40,000 to 50,000 doing less well,” Mr Martin said.

“It is a really good time to be talking to private business about how we take that challenge to generate job opportunities for our young people.

“None of us want to be the generation that hands our young people in Dundee a less good deal than we had.”

The conference also heard from Phil Ford of Skills Development Scotland who told delegates that employment in Dundee is still stubbornly below pre-recession levels.

He said productivity in the city is above the Scottish average and earnings are significantly below the national median.

The number of business start-ups is also below the national rate, but he said Dundee had fewer failures.

Healthcare was the largest employer with 17,200 staff in the city – around 23% of the total workforce – with retail and education being the next largest concerns with 8,700 and 8,500 employees respectively.

Mr Ford said SDS projections for the city showed expected growth in construction, professional and technical roles, health and social work and in the digital sphere in the years to 2024, although a further erosion of the manufacturing base was likely. He also said job types were changing. “We are seeing a rise in non-standard jobs with an increase in temporary work, self-employment and part-time jobs in Dundee. We are also seeing underemployment and under-utilisation of workers.

“Overall, we are seeing in Scotland an hour-glass labour market with higher and lower level jobs and a squeeze in the middle.”

Alison Henderson, CEO of event organiser Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, said there was a range of employability support available.

She said it was vital that employers already based in the city flagged up their future skills needs so educators could bring suitably qualified young people into the labour market.

Tay Cities deal head David Littlejohn responds to a question from the floor.