Dundee highest for low skilled posts in Scotland

Employment: Survey reveals technology’s impact in job categories

Dundee had the greatest proportion of low skilled jobs in Scotland in 2015, according to a new survey.

The latest Royal Bank of Scotland Regional Economic Tracker found there were 22,600 such posts in the city last year, representing 35.7% of the workforce.

No Scottish local authority area had a greater proportion of low skilled jobs.

Fife was in 13th place at 27.6% of its workforce (47,800), Angus 18th at 25.7% (14,100) and Perth and Kinross 21st at 24.6% (18,300).

For high skilled jobs, Angus was 12th highest of the 32 Scottish local authorities with 41.8% of its workforce (22,900 jobs) in that category last year.

Perth and Kinross was 15th with 41.1% (30,600 jobs); Fife was 19th with 38.5% (66,800 jobs) and Dundee was 27th with 33.2% (21,000 jobs).

Of the big cities, Edinburgh has the largest proportion of high skilled roles, supporting 131,200 positions, over half the workforce.

Glasgow and Aberdeen were close behind with 45% of their residents in high skill occupations.

Glasgow had numerically more low skill level posts than any other area of the country, with 65,100 positions.

All categories were affected by technology, said the bank’s economic team.

The sector created more roles within the medium to high sector but there was a drop off in low level skills as technology replaces the need for manpower.

Sebastian Burnside of the RBS economics team, said: “These figures demonstrate the impact of technology on Scotland’s labour market.

“Firms are automating tasks and often replacing lower skilled occupations.

“That is clear to see in retail as the number of check-out staff falls.

“Technology also creates opportunities and we’re seeing growth where data is helping generally higher skilled workers take better decisions and be more efficient.”

The report also found that the medium to high skill jobs sector is supporting Scottish jobs growth.

General employment climbed by 0.7% across the country during 2015, with professionals and trade roles offsetting a decline among retail and contact centre work.

Medium and high skill growth climbed by 1.7% in the 12 months to 2015. There was a drop of 2% across the low skills sector.

Dundee’s efforts in attracting more jobs across the spectrum are based on the £1bn waterfront redevelopment and on North Sea oil decommissioning.

The vision for Dundee waterfront, on which much of the city’s job hopes are pinned.