Labour market activity in the Scottish service sector in 1991: an analysis of evidence from the Scottish Chambers' of Commerce Business Survey

The expansion of the quarterly Scottish Chambers' Business Survey in 1990 permitted, for the first time, the examination of a number of features of the demand side of both manufacturing and service sector labour markets. The changing nature and operation of the labour market has been the subject of much speculation and debate. This paper examines evidence from the survey [between the third quarter 1990 and the fourth quarter 1991], of three of these trends in the service sector, namely. * evidence of shifts towards part time and other non standard forms of employment; * differences in the difficulties in recruiting a range of occupational categories, highlighting underlying skill shortages; * special recruitment and retention difficulties.