Skills shortage sparks slow-down in Scottish jobs market
16-10-2006
Scotland's booming jobs market has started to slow due to a lack of suitable candidates, new figures show.
However, applicants in Scotland still have a better chance of finding a position than those in other parts of the UK, according to the Bank of Scotland's Labour Market Report for September.
Jobs growth in Scotland was at its lowest level for eight months in September, although demand for new staff was still strong in all categories of staff, with the strongest demand for permanent staff in the engineering and construction sector, followed by IT and computing.
The strongest demand for temporary staff was in the nursing and medical care sector, followed by engineering and construction, then IT and computing.
"Although the Scottish labour market is still growing, the latest results suggest that employment growth rates are now starting to slow," said group economist at the Bank of Scotland, Tim Crawford.
"Part of the slowdown seems related to reported difficulties in finding qualified staff," he added.
Salaries for permanent staff rose for the 39th month in a row driven by skills shortages, while temporary and contract staff also experienced a rise in wages, due to high demand for short-term workers.
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz 