No, not the new Village People
Employers across Scotland are having to compete more to find the workers they need for what is, presumably, a robust economy, and having to pay more to recruit them.
No doubt our NoMedia can easily turn this into a bad news story:
‘Scottish businesses struggle to find suitable employees as costs rocket’
However, as we’ve seen before, this is good news. A well-paid workforce in secure employment, is more productive, has less mental health problems and pays more tax for the public services which they and all of us benefit from.
From the Scottish Financial News piece on the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs for Scotland:
‘Another sharp monthly rise in permanent staff placements was observed in Scotland during July. The pace of expansion, despite easing slightly, was close to June’s 44-month high. Furthermore, growth in Scotland outpaced the UK average, which was the softest since last October. Recruitment agencies in Scotland also signalled strong growth in contract staff billings, extending the current sequence of increase to seven months. Permanent job vacancies rose substantially during July, despite the pace of expansion slipping from June’s 13-month peak. Nonetheless, permanent staff demand was greater in Scotland than across the UK as a whole. There was also marked growth in temporary job openings across Scotland at the beginning of the third quarter. The rate of expansion was the quickest for nine months and noticeably outpaced that seen at the national level. Amid rising staff vacancies and shrinking candidate supply, pay pressures intensified in July. Salaries awarded to permanent starters in Scotland increased at the fastest pace in six months, with inflation outpacing that seen for the UK overall. Meanwhile, temp pay rates in Scotland rose at the sharpest degree since April 2017.’
As always this takes place among a wider array of news indicating relative economic strength which any government of the day, in Scotland, can claim at least some credit for:
Further evidence of better employment practices in Scotland
Or see below the merciful other reality of employment in modern Scotland?
Yet more objective evidence Scotland’s economy healthy in SNP care
More objective evidence of a strong Scottish Economy in 2018
Scottish Government-funded GHA ‘boosts Scottish economy by £2bn’
Another case in the real story of Scotland’s economy: Big business failures in Scotland fall by 25%’
Another case in the real story of Scotland’s economy: Hospitality retail growth up 11%
Umpteenth post on underlying strength in Scottish economy: Property investment up 19.8%!
The shortage is, of course, due to the fact that Scotland is ‘the highest taxed part of the UK’ which the Tories keep intoning and which Nomedia take as axiomatic. No mention of significantly lower council tax, free higher and further education and many other benefits AS A RIGHT, so that there is no need for university fees, (and school fees), etc. And there are benefits like Baby Boxes.
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