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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article