LAST week, good news was announced on Scotland's jobs front:

in the three months to September, the number of unemployed fell by 10,000 to 164,000 and the number in work rose by 22,000 to 2.6 million.

But the underlying trends are depressing. According to the Trades Union Congress, UK-wide, only one in every 40 posts created since the recession has been full-time. The majority (24 out of 40) have been part-time, with the remainder accounted for through self-employment.

Some prefer to work part-time, and a low-paid job may be preferable to life on the dole. For those starting on the career ladder, poor wages can be a necessary evil to gain experience needed to progress to better-paid jobs. All the same, our report on terms and conditions in the fast-food industry makes gloomy reading, showing minimum wage rates and zero-hours contracts are all but routine. Many employees earn barely £5 an hour, and the fine print in some contracts allows employers to adjust their hours according to their "business needs".

With research by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission showing only one-quarter of those on low pay 10 years ago have moved on to better wages, the fear must be that even as the economy improves, companies that have grown accustomed to engaging bright, talented young people for derisory rates will lack any incentive to improve their terms and conditions. Governments, therefore, need to oblige them to do so. Unfortunately, David Cameron's Coalition won't and the Scottish Government lacks the wherewithal, since employment law is reserved to Westminster.

The Smith Commission, however, was set up to to take forward the devolution commitments on further powers for the Scottish Parliament which the three Unionist parties promised would "deliver safer, faster and better change" than independence. If our young people are to be saved from a future of in-work penury, then devolving employment policy - and with it, the capacity to implement a living wage - must be at the heart of their deliberations.