LOCAL LABOUR POLITICIANS ANGER AT LATEST RISE IN UNEMPLOYMENT Dumfries and Galloway MP Russell Brown and Dumfriesshire MSP Elaine Murray have expressed anger at the news that unemployment in Dumfries and Galloway has risen again this month- despite a fall in Scotland and the rest of the UK. The latest figures were released by the Office of National Statistics ahead of the Budget (19 March 2014). The figures show that the overall number of job seekers in the region increased from 2695 (2.9% of the population) to 2740 (3%) while the figures for youth unemployment also show an increasing from 705 people in January (6.4) to 740 people (6.7%). This is 1% above the Scottish average of 5.7% and 1.5% above the British average of 5.2%. Commenting on the figures, Russell Brown said: “When will the UK Government wake up and realise that our region is facing a jobs crisis. Month after month these figures are getting worse, yet the UK Government go on about their economic recovery. The only people who are benefiting from the recovery are the wealthy, while local people are left to depend on benefits to make ends meet. The Government’s answers to this problem have been woefully inadequate with their jobs programme failing to make a real dent in our unemployment numbers. A future Labour Government will establish a job guarantee scheme which will help our young people get into work. This Government is creating a lost generation who have never been given the opportunity to work.” Elaine Murray added: “It is upsetting to see that the number of young people needing to claim benefits has risen. However, neither the UK Government nor the Scottish Government seems prepared to tackle the issue head on. The SNP are spending too much time dealing with constitutional issues and not enough time tackling the issues that are affecting the lives of local people. Thanks to the SNP policies, our region has actually lost jobs. When it comes to tackling the job crisis in Dumfries and Galloway, the SNP Government are simply ignoring the problem.”
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:05:35 +0000
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