INDUSTRY leaders yesterday welcomed the latest jobless figures which show a rise in employment and a fall in the number of people claiming benefits, writes Chris Starrs.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) measure of unemployment, which includes people not eligible for benefits, showed that in the year to September/November 1998 the number of people out of work in Scotland rose by 7000 to 194,000.
However, employment rose by 19,000 over the same period, Scottish Business and Industry Minister Lord Macdonald said yesterday.
The seasonally adjusted number of people claiming unemployment related benefits fell to 134,200 in December, a decrease of 2100 compared to November. The claimant count rate remained unchanged at 5.5% of the work-force.
Lord Macdonald said the rises in both unemployment and employment were reflected in an increase in economic activity.
Mr Iain McMillan, CBI Scotland director, said the figures were encouraging, ''especially when account is taken of the difficult economic environment in which businesses had to operate in 1998''.
He added: ''There are increasing signs of the difficulties in the manufacturing sector now rippling over into other sectors of the economy. And it would be very surprising if this trend in employment were to continue through 1999.''
However, the Scottish National Party accused Lord Macdonald of trying to hide the ''real'' jobless figures.
Employment spokesman Alasdair Morgan MP said: ''New Labour have adopted the Tory tactic of using the fiddled claimant count figures on unemployment to hide the real jobless total.
''Using the ILO survey, the Government's own preferred measure, shows the Scottish total for unemployment at 192,000 - that's up 7000 on one year ago.
''Lord Macdonald says that the figures are encouraging but the truth is that Scotland has the worst record on unemployment of any part of the UK. The Scottish total is up by 7000 compared to 12 months ago, but in England there has been a fall of 113,000, in Northern Ireland a fall of 11,000, and in Wales the position is static.
''In Scotland, the level of unemployment stands at 7.6%, which compares with a UK figure of 6.2%.
''Lord Macdonald's attempt to hide the real jobless total shows that New Labour does not want to take responsibility for the impact of their policies in Scotland.''
Mr Ross Finnie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat' economics spokesman, also said Scotland had come out worse than the UK average on ILO figures. ''But what is of most concern is that, with businesses under constant pressure with the strong pound, there still seems to be no long-term strategy for reversing this trend,'' he added.
Lord Macdonald said: ''The fall in claimant count unemployment shown by the latest statistics is welcome news. The average claimant count unemployment rate in Scotland for 1998 as a whole was the lowest since 1976, which reflects an encouraging performance in what was an unstable year for the world economy.''
Meanwhile, the High Street retail chain Dixons announced yesterday that 400 new jobs would be created in Scotland as part of 2000-strong addition to the group's work-force across the UK.
But more jobs are being lost in the eastern Borders. Christian Salveson have confirmed they are closing their frozen food processing unit at Eyemouth with the loss of about 20 jobs.
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