Jobs milestone for mall

Aberdeen's newest shopping centre has created some 1,250 jobs and welcomed almost 12 million shoppers through its doors since opening a year ago.

As the 275 million Union Square centre prepared to celebrate its first anniversary of trading, the developers claimed that the opening of the mall had firmly established the Granite City as a "real alternative" to Scotland's traditional shopping destinations in the Central Belt. A spokeswoman for the centre said: "In 12 months, Union Square has created around 1,250 jobs, over 900 of which were generated through Jobs For U, a partnership with Jobcentre Plus, Skills Development Scotland, and other organisations.

"A survey of the job applicants revealed that around 74 per cent of the new positions went to people who were previously unemployed and 71 per cent were on Jobseeker's Allowance."