Discovering what needs to be done in the City of Discovery

Dundee is a city on the up but it still lags behind Scotland and the UK in key economic areas. As The Courier prepares to host a unique jobs summit aimed at tackling those problems, Kieran Andrews and Gareth McPherson ask – ‘What has happened to our indus

Jute holds the same iconic association with Dundee as jam and journalism, but it also signified something that has been crucial to the city and its people for decades.

It would have been unthinkable, even just a generation ago, for Dundee’s economy not to have some form of manufacturing as its heart and soul.

Analysis by The Courier, however, shows that while the sector employed more than one third of the city’s workers a quarter of a century ago, that level has plummeted to single figures.

The official census of 1981 shows that 36.6% of employees were registered as doing a manufacturing job, whereas just 6.9% were recorded in the same way by the 2014 Office for National Statistics business register and employment survey.

Since the likes of Timex left the city and NCR ended its manufacturing presence in 2009, with the loss of more than 250 jobs, questions have been asked about what will fill the gap.

More than 87% are now employed in the service industry, with almost half of that number in the public sector, but despite the promise of renewables jobs before the 2011 Holyrood election nothing has emerged to fill that void.

With this in mind, The Courier has organised a jobs summit to try to tackle the issues in the local economy.

Dundee is on the up, of that there is no doubt.

A series of public and private investments will see new positions created across the jobs spectrum.

Add to that an increase in new business start-ups and a consistent drop in the unemployment rate and it is clear things are far from gloomy.

But there are still major issues that need to be addressed.

As such, John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, and Lord Dunlop, the Scotland Office minister, will join major employers and business leaders at our event tomorrow.

Richard Neville, editor of The Courier, said: “I am delighted to have been able to bring together senior ministers from both the UK and Scottish Government for this summit.

“This is an important event as it provides the city’s biggest employers a rare opportunity to tell the ministers exactly what they believe is required to improve the employment prospects of local people. There is no doubt the future is bright for Dundee, but if we are to truly capitalise on the exciting developments currently in the pipeline then there can be no room for complacency.

“I look forward to Friday’s summit as a genuine opportunity to make meaningful progress.”

RICHARD NEVILLE EDITOR THE COURIER