Glasgow job centres need reform, UK Employment Minister has said
Alison McGovern said job centres are not giving people enough support through a 'tick-box culture'
Last updated 21st Oct 2024
Glasgow's job centres must be reformed to help bring the city's employment rates back up to the national average, Alison McGovern MP has said.
The UK Government's Employment Minister visited The Princes' Trust Wolfson Centre to discuss how the Government can help get people into work.
The charity offers support to young people providing courses like hospitality training.
Glasgow currently has one of the highest unemployment levels in the country.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the unemployment for Glasgow has risen to 5.1%.
The most recent unemployment rate for Glasgow City was higher than across Scotland as a whole.
Economic inactivity has slightly increased to 25.6% - these are people who are neither employed nor seeking work.
'This is a fantastic city'
Mrs McGovern told Greatest Hits Radio News: "Across the whole of the UK we've got a big problem because our employment rate, the number of people who are working, was growing steadily and then at the time of the pandemic it dropped.
"It fell off a cliff and has plateaued since, but when you look at the details of that, the problems are focused in quite particular areas and it's those areas that we really want to think about.
"Glasgow's employment rate still bares the scars of years gone by and what happened in Glasgow's economy.
"Glasgow's employment rate is not at the national average but we need to think about all the opportunity that's here.
"This is a fantastic city, there's so much life here, there's so much going on and I feel sure that there are amazing opportunities for people to get a job that will really suit them.
"The problem we've got is that the bit in the system that's supposed to help people, their job centre, is just not really working.
"We've got fantastic work coaches but the way that it's all structured means that they see people for very little time, there's a kind of tick box culture.
"That's not the right way to help people so the new UK government really wants to change that, we want to make sure that job centres have ambition for people and we're going to be bringing forward more proposals on that really soon."