Dundee has Britain’s worst record for getting people back into work with just 15% of jobseekers finding employment through a flagship UK Government programme.
Shadow Scottish Secretary, Margaret Curran, will today call for job-creating powers to be devolved to Scotland immediately during a visit to the city.
The trip follows her meeting with Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael last week, where she pushed him to transfer the powers of the Work Programme to the Scottish Parliament.
Ms Curran said: “Nowhere demonstrates more clearly why we need the job-creating powers of the Smith Commission now than Dundee.
“The Tories’ Work Programme has failed Dundee. Unemployment is high, but only 15% of people who find themselves on the Work Programme get a job at the end of it. This isn’t good enough.”
The Work Programme was introduced after the 2010 general election with the aim of finding jobs for the long-term unemployed.
However, the figures show that only 15.8% of participants in Dundee have gone on to find work through the programme significantly below the Scottish average of 21.4% and the UK average of 23.4%.
During her trip, Labour MP Ms Curran will visit Claverhouse training, a social enterprise that provides employability services to people across the city.
She has also asked to meet with the SNP Leader of Dundee City Council, Ken Guild, to discuss how devolution of the Work Programme to local authorities could benefit people in the city.
This follows a joint statement yesterday by the leaders of Scotland’s three largest cities Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in support of the proposal.
Mr Guild told The Courier he had provided a meeting time for Ms Curran but stressed the proposals would need to be examined before Dundee City Council made any commitment.
He said: “The Smith Commission has not created any job-creating powers. What she is trying to deliver down from the Scottish Parliament is not real job-creating power.
“Labour seems to be embarking on a campaign to undermine the powers of Holyrood and remove powers from Holyrood.”