‘Time to discover

Dundee has most out of work in all the country

DunDee continues to have the highest rate of unemployment in Scotland, according to the latest official figures.

Data released by the Scottish Government shows that about one in three adults in Dundee was out of work in 2017 – the worst rate of any council area in Scotland.

The City of Discovery has also seen the biggest drop in the employment rate over the past decade of all local authorities in Scotland, with 4.4% fewer people working in 2017 compared with 2007.

However, that figure is still an improvement on those from 2012 to 2015 which showed a steady decline in the numbers of Dundonians in work, especially in 2013 when 61.1% of people were employed compared with 65.4% last year.

From 66% of people working in 2004, the figure rose to 70% two years later and dropped back to 66.3% by 2011. In 2012 the number was 64.8% and stood at 62% in 2014 – a rise of 1% over the previous year.

In 2015 the number of people in work in the city was 63.7%, increasing by a further 2.7% in 2016.

The city was named sixth yesterday in a list of top European places to visit in 2018 – the only UK entry in guide book Lonely Planet, which also includes Italy’s Emilia-Romagna, the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and Greece’s Small Cyclades islands.

But, despite £1 billion of investment in the waterfront, including £80million on the V&A Museum of Design, the city is apparently still struggling to keep its residents employed.