§ 31. Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the medium-and long-term employment prospects for Scotland.
§ Mr. GoldingScotland, in common with the rest of the United Kingdom, is suffering from the effects of the world trade recession, and recovery is largely dependent upon an upturn in the economy generally. Although I realise that 1977 may well be a difficult year and we must guard against over-optimism, there have recently been some encouraging signs; the trend of vacancies held by the Employment Services Agency has been rising and the trend of redundancies and short-time working has been falling.