Moray being 'hit' by oil downturn
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MORAY is suffering from the ongoing downturn in the oil and gas sector, latest job figures show.
That’s according to Mandy McIntosh, the Jobcentre manager in Moray, who said there is now no doubt that problems in the industry are filtering through.
Monthly statistics for all areas of Scotland, announced this week, detail the figures from December, 2015 to January, 2016, and from January, 2015 to January, 2016.
While Ms McIntosh said that unemployment across all local authority areas went up from December to January – partly due to layoffs after temporary seasonal work – she pointed out that Moray has also seen unemployment increase over the year from January, 2015 to January, 2016.
In Moray, she said there were 740 job seekers in December, compared with 930 in January. That was a 25.7 per cent spike, compared to a Scotland-wide increase of 9.3 per cent.
While most local authority areas in Scotland have seen unemployment drop between January, 2015 and January, 2016, however, Ms McIntosh said that Moray is on a shorter list that has seen it increase. In that time, unemployment in Moray has risen by 7.5%.
"When you look at variants over the year from January to January, the local authorities that have gone up are Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Shetlands, so it is pretty clear we are being hit by the downturn in the oil industry," Ms McIntosh told The Northern Scot this week.
"We are certainly seeing that now. It’s not only people who are directly affected by the oil, there is a knock-on effect as well. You are also getting companies saying they are not taking anyone on because they are not sure what’s happening.
"I don’t think there’s any doubt we are being affected. When it all started in Aberdeen, we were told there might be knock-on effects here, and we hoped that wouldn’t happen, but it’s certainly coming in.
"We are getting more and more people coming in and saying they had been working offshore, or for oil companies onshore."
Ms McIntosh said she is hoping to see the figures improve in the coming months, in part because an increase in claimants can put a significant strain on job centre staff.
There was some positive news in the statistics, however.
Ms McIntosh said that the number of unemployed young people in Moray continues to fall.
While they did not drop from December to January, she said that the numbers are down by 15 per cent from January, 2015 to January, 2016. There were 230 claimants in January, 2015, compared to 195 last month.
"That’s encouraging," she said. "Obviously we don’t know where these people go, and we can’t say for sure that they aren’t claiming in other areas, but it is still encouraging to think Moray has not got high youth unemployment."
