The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) has voiced its concerns about the increase in unemployment in Scotland revealed yesterday (11th November) in official data from the Office of National Statistics. The jobless total north of the border rose by 11,000 in the three months to September, to stand at 166,000. Particular concern has been expressed about the impact on female employment, with 9,000 women becoming unemployed over the quarter.
The recent Scottish Local Shop Report, published by SGF, highlights the importance of the convenience store sector in providing female employment: in Scotland 63% of employees in the convenience store sector are women. SGF is calling on the Scottish government to urgently assess the potential impact on employment of the new national living wage, which will come into force in April of 2016.
SGF Head of Public Affairs, John Lee, said: “The Scottish Local Shop Report shows that convenience stores provide vital jobs for women in the labour market. We also know from the report that 67% of employees are over 24 years of age – it is these employees who will be covered by the implementation of the living wage so the potential cost to convenience store businesses will be significant.
“Our recent survey on the impact of the living age showed that retailers will respond by reducing staff hours, redundancies, delaying and even cancelling planned investment. The living wage will simply lead to yet more unemployment in 2016 with a particularly negative impact on women.”
The Scottish unemployment rate is now 6%, which is above the rate for the whole of the UK. Unemployment in Scotland has risen seven times over the past year.
