Shock new figures reveal that unemployment all but doubled in Highland since March, with young people hit worst of all.
For 16-24 year olds, the unemployment figure has shot up 116%, prompting Highland Council to redesign its employability service.
Highland Council is pulling out all stops with a raft of measures to try and support young people impacted by the effects of the pandemic.
It will use £1.2m Scottish Government Young Person Guarantee funding, awarded for 2020/21,to tackle the problem by doubling its number of work placements to 60 and creating 20 graduate intern positions.
The council will also use the funds to support up to 150 jobs in the private and third sectors with grant aid.
It will ramp up staff in the employability team to 15, including three new posts.
But it may be impossible to turn back the tide, particularly for the region’s young, according to the local Federation of Small Businesses, while a Highland economist says he’s pessimistic about the region’s prospects for the next two years.
Youth unemployment in Highland has risen from 768 to 1430, and this could rise to 2,200 next spring, according to Bank of England forecasts.
The wider Highland unemployment figures show an increase of almost 98% since March, slightly above the Scottish rate of 97%, with more than 6,500 people seeking work.
But this could rise to a total of 10,000 next spring, peaking at 7.7% nationally, according to the Bank of England.
Skye has been hardest hit so far with 171% more people seeking work at the Portree job centre since March, followed by Inverness at 116%.
In Fort William and Dingwall the numbers have almost doubled.
In a report to councillors, economy and regeneration manager Andy McCann says apart from Covid, a number of long-standing and emerging challenges are also affecting the labour market.
“Despite an increasing number wishing to remain, young people continue to leave Highland and not return.
“Certain posts are hard to fill and increasingly as the working age population drops this will become more acute as replacement and new job openings are predicted to exceed the supply of labour.”
Brexit and new migration policies are making the situation worse, Mr McCann added.
The Federation of Small Businesses’ Highland and islands manager David Richardson said the figures are alarming.
“But they are not unexpected given the importance of tourism and hospitality to this region as a whole and the huge troubles these sectors currently face.
“Whatever happens, we cannot afford to lose our young people and we must all strive to bring youth unemployment back under control.
“We must work to make out local economies more diverse, so that if one industry takes a knock the whole local area doesn’t fall over.”
Meanwhile Highland economist Tony Mackay said while the council’s initiative is welcome, its impact will be limited.
“The council itself will only employ another 30 young people, which is a very small number in the regional context. The private sector will have to do much more.
“The population of the Highlands has declined and aged in recent years.
“One of the main reasons for that has obviously been the decisions of young people to choose to live and work elsewhere in Scotland, UK and overseas.
“There used to be a high level of return migration but that has clearly declined significantly in recent years.
“Covid and Brexit are making things worse.
“I am very pessimistic about the prospects for the Highlands economy in 2021 and possibly 2022.
“The Highland Council initiative is therefore very welcome but I expect it will only have a small impact.”
