Bumpy ride ahead for the economy

UNEMPLOYMENT is on the rise again in Scotland in what could be a worrying foretaste of things to come under a Tory Brexit.

The incredible story of the age of austerity is that unemployment has remained low while the economy has been more or less flatlining since George Osborne cut the feet from under the recovery by slashing public spending when it ought to have risen.

But the low unemployment figures did not paint the whole picture. Many of the jobs were part-time, zero-hour, or low-wage, keeping people off the unemployment stats but barely above the breadline.

Now, with costs rising faster than wages and unemployment beginning to snare young women (the group who filled most of these low-wage jobs), the future looks less than rosy.

Most workers expect their wages to flatline or fall over the next year.

And for all the hype about increasing public sector pay above the one per cent freeze, council employees haven’t seen a brass farthing yet – and neither have the councils who are expected to pick up the tab.

Although the Scottish Government are pulling every lever at their disposal – and they now have more – the economy is still on the deck instead of airborne.

The looming exodus from the EU, almost all economic forecasts agree, will have another negative effect on the economy.

That will mean further constraint and more job losses. Buckle your seatbelts ... but not for take-off.