The Scottish economy is coming under increasing pressure with figures published today showing that output is declining at a record rate and the financial services industry is preparing to axe 15,000 British jobs in the next three months.
The Scottish economy is coming under increasing pressure with figures published today showing that output is declining at a record rate and the financial services industry is preparing to axe 15,000 British jobs in the next three months.
Royal Bank of Scotland's authoritative purchasing managers index reports that more than two in five Scottish manufacturers saw falling output in December with just 16% declaring a rise in production. This represents the fastest drop in the 11-year history of the survey.
It was little better among service companies with 43.2% reporting that business activity was down compared to 11.2% who had seen an increase. Panel members blamed falling workload for the decline in output.
This knocked on to employment with the rate of job-cutting in December exceeding the previous survey record posted in November.
Some 22.8% of manufacturers had cut their workforce from the previous month as had 23.6% of service providers, through either not replacing departing staff or formal redundancy programmes.
There are signs that job losses could climb even further with the Confederation of British Industry estimating some 10,000 financial services jobs were lost in the last quarter of 2008.
It predicts that the sector, which employs around a million people in the UK including more than 86,000 in Scotland, will shed another 12,000 to 15,000 roles in the first three months of this year alone, with more to come.
White-collar staff in management and consultancy have already been the biggest victims of the recession so far, according to new figures. Between June and November, the Insolvency Service received notifications of 22,038 redundancies at head offices in the management and consultancy sector - an average of 848 a week.
