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Employment figures
17/12/2008
Commenting on today's labour market statistics, which show unemployment in Scotland rose by 12,000 over the past year - compared to 238,000 over the year across the UK - Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said:
"Scotland's labour market continues to outperform the UK as a whole. Despite difficult economic conditions, we have higher employment, a significantly lower unemployment rate, and higher economic activity levels than the UK average.
"We are, however, now seeing the extent of the economic downturn impacting on the real economy, particularly the construction sector, and the rise in unemployment is serious and of great concern.
"The major issue we hear from the business community is lack of funding available to good private sector companies, and the discrepancy between what the banks say is happening in terms of access to credit, and what companies report is actually happening. This is an issue that we will continue to press with the major banks in Scotland and the UK Government.
"There is also concern about the marginal benefits to the economy of the 13 months' cut in VAT, given the significant cost of the policy, and the view that the resources should have been focussed on capital spending in order to address directly the downturn in the construction sector.
"While the global economic slowdown has presented severe challenges to the Scottish economy, we are doing absolutely everything we can to support Scottish business and families by developing a range of initiatives as part of our Economic Recovery Programme.
"We have slashed business rates and are providing another £70 million extra to fund a further freeze of the Council Tax. As part of our six-point programme, we have set out further steps to keep Scotland's economy moving - by increasing advice to business, and ensuring planning and regulation supports development.
"We welcomed the acceleration of capital spending through the Pre-Budget report which allows us to spend an extra £260 million over this year and next, supporting 4,000 Scottish jobs and complementing our already substantial capital investment programme.
"We will continue to press the UK Government to take measures that create more flexibility and provide opportunities for the Scottish Government to invest in our economy.
"Our skilled and motivated workforce, relatively lower cost base, lower exchange rate and huge renewable energy resources point to us maintaining our competitive advantage as we move into better economic times."