Employers’ Responses to Demographic Changes in Rural Labour Markets: The Case of Dumfries and Galloway

Abstract

Employers in many rural areas are facing the problem of a declining workforce due to demographic changes in the population. These demographic changes are a result of a combination of population ageing, the in-migration of mainly retired people, out-migration and low fertility rates. This paper examines how employers are adjusting to demographic changes in Dumfries and Galloway, a rural local authority in south west Scotland. The area has one of the highest proportions of older people in the UK, and as such provides a useful insight into employers’ responses to population ageing. Fifty locally based employers were questioned concerning the labour market impact of population ageing and their responses to this situation. The paper argues that in order to ensure the medium-term economic viability of the local economy, employers will need a set of strategies both to attract workers to the area and to increase the participation and retention of older workers resident in the area.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway for proving the funding for this research. We would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their valuable comments they provided on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks also go to Ross Brown at Scottish Enterprise and Mike Danson at Paisley University. Finally we wish to thank Dina Anastasiadou and Vanesa Fuertes for help in carrying out the interviews for this research.