Six Scottish areas among ‘most difficult’ to find jobs

● Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute listed in top 10 best places for work

Scotland is home to six of the areas where it is most difficult to find a job, a report has claimed.

North Ayrshire, Angus, Midlothian, East Ayrshire, Clackamnnanshire and Inverclyde are listed in the ten trickiest places to find local work, according to a study from jobs site Indeed.com.

However, Edinburgh, alongside Argyll and Bute, was listed in the ten best places to find work.

Three areas of Wales, alongside County Durham in the north-east of England, also made up the top ten list of the most difficult places to look for a new role.

An analysis of millions of jobs advertised on Indeed’s site, as well as millions of CVS, found which areas had the most and fewest candidates per vacancy.

Areas of southern England dominate a list of the best places to find jobs, with Oxfordshire in the top spot.

The other locations making up the top five were Surrey, Berkshire, Edinburgh and Bristol. Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Argyll and Bute and Cambridgeshire completed the top ten.

The research suggested some places in Scotland and Wales have the biggest shortage of local jobs, relative to the number of candidates, so workers in those areas face the most competition when searching for a job in their home town. Rhondda, Blaenau Gwent and Neath joined the Scottish locations in the worst ten places to look for work.

Pawel Adrjan, spokesman for Indeed, said: “Although the unemployment rate is close to record lows and the jobs boom has only kept going, our research shows the picture is not the same across the country. In many areas with less robust demand from employers, particularly in Wales and Scotland, it is more difficult for job seekers to find work close to home, because there are a lot of candidates competing for jobs or there are not enough opportunities for everyone.

He added: “Good transport links are crucial in ensuring people in those areas are able to reach other nearby towns and cities where there is higher demand for candidates.

“The regions need to do more to make themselves attractive to the global pool of talent.”