The Hour

West Dunbartonshire and East Ayrshire have are officially the worst unemployment blackspots. A TUC study showed there are more job seekers for every vacancy there than anywhere else.

Previously the league has been topped by areas in London’s east end.

Across the country job vacancy levels have halved to around 500,000 during the past four years.

But the position is particularly bleak in West Dunbartonshire where more than 40 people are chasing every vacancy. In 2005 it was ranked 38th worst in the country.

North Ayrshire is the fourth worst place to be job hunting and Western Isles is eighth. This puts four Scottish regions in the top ten. Inverclyde, South Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Falkirk and Glasgow are all in the top 30.

In Scotland, unemployment is at 8.1 per cent, which is higher than the UK average of 7.8 per cent.

Finance secretary John Swinney told the Scotsman: “These figures show there is more to do to address unemployment in Scotland's communities, which is why the SNP is seeking to enhance the responsibilities of the parliament to ensure we have the job creating powers Scotland needs.

"Continuing our efforts to tackle unemployment and to grow our economy will be a key priority of the re-elected SNP Government as we support training opportunities with 25,000 apprenticeships a year, back Scotland's small businesses to create employment with the small business bonus and work to re-industrialise Scotland creating new jobs in our low carbon industries."

While Labour MP for West Dunbartonshire Gemma Doyle added: "This is shocking news and confirms the government is cutting too hard and too fast. We shouldn't see so many Scottish places on this list.

"The figures demonstrate that the Tories' economic policy isn't working, but sadly neither is the SNP's. The SNP just haven't done enough to get people here back to work."

On a more positive not, Moray in the Highlands had the greatest improvement in its ranking moving from 26 in 2005 to 98 in 2011.

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