Shetland Islands Council Brexit Sounding Board 23 November 2017 Item 2 Immigrant Workers and Families

A Shetland Ec onomic Perspecti ve

The Shetland economy is, perhaps, unusual in a Scottish let alone a British context by virtue of the

islands’

isolation, unique mix of i ndustries, and relatively small population

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set 200 miles north of Aberdeen, the islands are home to some 23,167 people

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, with an overall annual value of the local economy of £1,091,421,269, equating to a Gross Regional Domestic Product of £485,000 ,000.

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The high value of our collective economy is indisputable, and the manner in which this economic activity is performed is particularly noteworthy too

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80.7% of the population are in employment (significantly above the Scottish and British national averages of, respectively, 72.6% and 72.4%), and the percentage of the 16-

64 year old population claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance is the lowest in the

UK at 0.7%, well below the Scottish and British averages of 2.8% and 2.5% respectively.

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A crude summary of this situation would be that there are, in some instances, more jobs than there are workers to undertake them. The reality of Shetland life is that some working age people will have more than one job; and that demand outstrips supply in some service industries (i.e. construction and ancillary trades). Attracting skilled and highly qualified workers to fill vacant positions (i.e. in the NHS) remains a perennial challenge; and, with such high levels of general employment, filling sufficient manual, less skilled positions (i.e. in hospitality or fish processing) from the local workforce can also present difficulties. Returning to the Shetland economy as a whole, fish dominate the picture: for example, in 2010/11 fish catching accounted for a total output of £70.9m, with value added of £30.6m; aquaculture an output of £156.3m, and value added of £49.5m; and fish processing an output of £83.3m and value added of £10.1m.

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Fish processing in particular provides a vivid example of the importance EU national workers play in the Shetland economy and, hence, community. Grieg Seafood Shetland is the largest salmon farmer in the islands

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of their 167 employees over 20% are EU nationals; over half of the 45 workers in their processing factory are EU nationals, and a number of skilled workers in their organisation are EU nationals also. Their managing director, Grant Cumming, recently spoke to the local media

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with regard the uncertain post-Brexit future for employment of EU nationals and said,

“It is a co

ncern. We would really struggle without our EU workers

. There’s a number of processing jobs held by them, but a nu mber of skilled positions too… there are a lot of EU graduates working for us, our vet is from Poland… [and] a large number of staff at the ha

tchery, which is obviously highly skilled work, are EU nationals as well.