MORE than 30 per cent of the 10,074 jobs to be created or safeguarded through planned inward investment in Scotland unveiled in the year to last March are “high-value” roles, the latest figures show.
Scottish Enterprise said yesterday that 3,161 of the 10,074 posts were “high-value jobs”, paying salaries around 20% higher than the Scottish average or more.
The jobs figures from the taxpayer-backed agency’s Scottish Development International arm include investment in Scotland from other parts of the UK as well as from overseas.
The 10,074 jobs total for the year to March 31, 2019 was up by 18% on the corresponding figure for the prior 12 months. A huge investment in Glasgow announced by banking giant Barclays drove the rise.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Boris Johnson acts the goat on Brexit as the grim cost keeps on rising
Of the total for the year to March 2019, 6,685 are planned new jobs and 3,389 are posts that will be safeguarded through proposed projects. The figures cover 108 projects, including plans by 47 new investors choosing to locate in Scotland.
Scottish Enterprise said 9,489 of the total inward investment jobs figure related to posts paying at least the real living wage of £17,061 per annum. The Barclays project accounts for 4,342 of the jobs, including 2,500 new posts. Among other major projects is an investment by US nanosatellite specialist Spire Global in its Glasgow site, which will create 261 jobs over the next five years.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: No escape from Johnson’s dire Brexit farce in Paris metro and airport
The inward investment figures were published as Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay visited Barclays’ new campus, under construction at Tradeston in Glasgow. The three main sectors for inward investment in the year to March 2019 were financial and business services, technology and advanced engineering, and energy, oil and gas.
SDI managing director Charlie Smith said: “Despite growing competition from other countries and the uncertain geopolitical climate we find ourselves in, Scotland continues to punch above its weight when it comes to attracting FDI (foreign direct investment).”
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 here