64 / 84
ECONOMIC REPORT
2016
64
7.2 Regional Employment
Scotland’s share of the total number of jobs supported by the sector has increased by three percentage points to
38 per cent from when it was last measured in 2013.
Of the 330,400 jobs supported by the sector, 124,500 are based in Scotland accounting for 81 per cent (27,500
jobs) of total direct employment, 41 per cent (62,000 jobs) of indirect employment and 24 per cent (35,000 jobs)
of induced employment.
Outside of Scotland, London and the South East of England hold the second largest share of jobs supported at
around 10 per cent each.
Figure 44: Employment by Region
East Midlands, 5%
East of England, 5%
Greater London, 10%
North East, 3%
Northern Ireland, 2%
North West, 6%
Scotland, 38%
South East, 10%
South West, 6%
Wales, 3%
West Midlands, 5%
Yorkshire and
Humber, 6%
Source: Experian
Annual employment data by local authority is only available up to 2014, prior to the full impact of the decline in
oil price being felt. In 2014, 22,000 direct oil and gas jobs were based in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Since
then, the unemployment rate in Aberdeen City has risen from 4.1 per cent in 2015 to 4.9 per cent in March 2016
and a similar trend is seen in Aberdeenshire where unemployment has increased from 2.7 to 3.2 per cent over
the same period. The reduction in employment supported by the oil and gas industry is likely to be a leading
contributing factor to this.
7.3 Offshore Workforce
In 2015, over 61,000 people travelled offshore for oil and gas exploration and production. While this represents
a decline of 5 per cent against 2014, it is a significantly lower rate of decline than across the industry as a whole,
confirming that the majority of job losses have come in onshore roles.