Zero hours call as Scots male unemployment hits record low
UNEMPLOYMENT among men has reached a record low in Scotland as it emerged almost one million people are now on zero hours contracts across the UK.
Union leaders called for the contracts to be banned, with young workers under the age of 25 the most likely to be affected.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed there were 2,680,000 Scots in work in the period from October to December last year.
This marked a rise of 37,000 when compared to the previous quarter.
However, the total was 5,000 lower than the same time in 2018.
Scotland’s employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 was lower than that recorded across the UK – with 75 per cent of the working age population in a job, compared to 76.5%. However, Scotland also had a lower unemployment rate, at 3.5% north of the Border and 3.8% for the UK as a whole.
For men, the unemployment rate was even lower at 3.3% – the lowest on record and below the 3.9% across the UK.
A total of 96,000 Scots were classed as being unemployed in the final three months of 2019.
Across the UK, 974,000 people were employed on zero hours contracts at the end of 2019, the ONS figures show.
This represents an increase of 130,000 (or 15.4%) compared to the same point last year, and is the highest on record.
However, the number of people on such contracts in Scotland fell from 72,000 in 2018 to 69,000 last year.
The GMB union is campaigning for zero hours contracts to be scrapped.
General secretary Tim Roache said: “Companies are using zero hours contracts as a business model to avoid their responsibilities to the people who make them their money – these figures show that’s increasing.
“On a zero hours contract you don’t know what wage you’ll have coming in from week to week, you don’t know if you can pay the bills or buy the shopping and you can’t say boo to a goose or you won’t get any hours the week after. People shouldn’t have to live like this – zero hours means zero security and zero rights.
“Enough is enough, it’s time to follow the successful policies of other countries and ban these contracts once and for all.”