North East MSP Mike Rumbles has called for support for local industries after alarming employment figures, released by the Scottish Government today, show that Aberdeen City saw the sharpest fall in employment of any local authority area in Scotland in 2015/16.
Employment in the city fell by 6.4 percent that year, from 76.7 percent in 2015 to 70.3 percent in 2016. Figures for last year show a marked improvement with employment returning to 76.1 percent in 2017.
Mr Rumbles said: “It is testament to the remarkable resilience of our local industries that employment has managed to bounce back in the region. But there are still many struggling families that have received very little support from either the Scottish Government or the UK Government.
“We now know that Aberdeen was the worst hit by the 2015/16 slump in employment in Scotland, yet I do not recall the SNP government lifting a finger to help.
“For decades past governments have used our industries as a cash cow. On top of that, our local services and health care are the worst funded in Scotland. It is time that some of that investment was returned to the North East.