Seven losing jobs every day outwith city financial sector

Published on Wednesday 19 August 2009 09:59

NEW figures have revealed that seven people not employed in the financial sector are losing their jobs in Edinburgh every day.

In the eight months to 5 June, a total of 6,821 redundancies were announced by firms based in Edinburgh – more than any other area of Scotland.

The finance and insurance sector accounted for 5,000 of the job losses, with many thought to be UK jobs axed by Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland.

That leaves another 1,821 job losses outside of the city's main industry, with manufacturing the sector with the second-most redundancies, at just under 1,000, followed by retail and transport.

The official government data shows clearly for the first time the impact that the recession is having on employers across all sectors.

Business leaders warned that further job losses are inevitable.

Ron Hewitt, chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "These figures are disappointing but, a year ago, we had people talking about 40,000 jobs being lost so we have to be grateful for small mercies. But we also know that we are not out of the tunnel yet.

"Historically, it is at this point of a recession that job losses come, so we know more people will lose jobs and that is a great concern.

"The whole issue of the contraction of financial services job losses has been a major issue and if Edinburgh and the Lothians has taken the biggest hit from that, it is no surprise, given it has the biggest concentration of those jobs. But lots of other sectors have been affected, such as construction, legal and retail, and that is regrettable."

The new data was compiled by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which has to be given 90 days' notice every time a firm wants to make more than 20 staff redundant. However, the regional data relates to the head office of the firm making the redundancies, rather than the region that the jobs are lost in.

It is thought that many of the 5,000 financial job losses will be down to RBS. However, its most recent data, up to June 2009, showed that it had only reduced 357 roles in Edinburgh, leaving it with 9,095 city workers.

Across Scotland, there were 30,127 redundancies in the eight months to 5 June, with 22.6 per cent of those down to firms based in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city's economic development leader, said the overall figures were "skewed" by firms like RBS cutting staff across the country.

"Unemployment in Edinburgh is still below the Scottish and UK average – and we expect it to remain that way.

"That is not to say that we are not facing up to the challenges of the recession and will continue to put in place initiatives such as the Economic Resilience Network and Action Plan to support all those who face redundancy or have lost their job."