Glasgow's diversifying jobs base makes it well placed to bounce back.

Glasgow has been through a very clear cycle of growth and diversification, strongly growing its jobs base, halving its unemployment rate, and honing strengths in high productivity sectors such as financial services and the creative industries in order to turn the whole city region into an economic engine. In spite of the pandemic, this trend has continued, with the Glasgow City Region demonstrating notable economic resilience with a quicker than anticipated recovery. Glasgow's scale – and its status as the major metropolis in the Scottish ‘system of cities’ – has helped it to attract and serve many important company HQs and to develop a critical mass of specialist back-office functions, both of which will underpin the economic recovery. Meanwhile a collective entrepreneurial mindset and independence of spirit are now helping drive a dynamic, rapidly growing and highly investible tech ecosystem. The city region’s eight local authorities are actively leading the ambition to translate this growth into a more inclusive economy.

"Economists are predicting that Glasgow will recover the fastest in Scotland from the impact of Covid-19, with expectations that its economy will grow by 4.6% in 2021."

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"From 2013-2018, Glasgow experienced the 2nd largest decrease in unemployment among UK core cities, halving its unemployment rate over 5 years."

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"Glasgow ranks in the top 10 cities in Europe in its size category for the number of new jobs in creative sectors."

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"The first Scottish-based digital-first challenger bank, Alba, focused on serving small and medium-sized businesses, has operationally launched in Glasgow."

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"Glasgow has the 4th highest number of private sector jobs among UK cities."

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"With over 49,000 enterprises and 955,000 jobs, Glasgow City Region has the fourth largest business base amongst the UK’s city regions."

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"Average salaries in Glasgow grew by over 10.5% between 2018 and 2019, putting it above the UK average."

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"Glasgow is one of just 8 mid-sized European cities to have gained enough survey responses among global financial professionals to appear in the major study of the world's most competitive financial centres."

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"Glasgow ranks in the top 5 cities in Europe in its size category for its enabling environment for cultural activities."

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"Barclays has officially opened the doors to its new state-of-the-art campus in Glasgow, making it one of Scotland’s biggest-ever inward investments. There are set to be 5,000 employees by 2023 on the campus, which will be home to the latest Barclays Eagle Lab hosting members of the Glasgow technology start-up community."

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"As of 2019, the Glasgow City Region is expected to house almost half (46%) of all new jobs created in Scotland over the next decade."

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"Glasgow is home to the 2nd largest Morgan Stanley office in Europe and the 5th largest globally."

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"At a city level, Glasgow was the second most attractive city in the UK for financial services FDI in 2019, having secured more than 3 times the number of projects as Edinburgh."

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"To celebrate JP Morgan’s 20th anniversary of its presence in the city, the company is developing a new technology centre for 2,700 employees in the heart of the IFSD."

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"The Central Belt Region now contains over 100,000 businesses - nearly 60% of the total active firms in Scotland - which together account for a combined GVA of nearly £100 billion, the largest of any region in the UK outside London."

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"The long term average annual growth forecast (2024-2031) is higher for Glasgow College Region (1.6%) than for Scotland (1.2%) or the UK (1.4%)."

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"The number of households in Glasgow assessed as homeless or at risk of homelessness has halved in the last two decades."

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"Since Glasgow’s lowest point for employment after the financial crisis (2013), more than 80,000 new jobs have been created regionally."

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"Pre-COVID, almost 7,000 new businesses start up in the city region each year."

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"Glasgow has benefitted from over £1.2 billion of capital expenditure through FDI since June 2012."

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"Glasgow has experienced over £16 billion worth of capital investment since 2011 across all sectors."

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"Both GVA and employment the city of Glasgow is forecast to grow faster than the Scottish and UK average from 2019-2029."

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"As Scotland's largest city and only metropolitan region, Glasgow generated £41.9 billion GVA (30% of Scotland’s GVA) in 2019."

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"In 2021, the UK government plan to set up a secondary HQ in Glasgow as part of a plan to relocate thousands of civil servants outside of central London."

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"The share of young people not in employment or education in Glasgow’s wider region fell from 10.2% to 8.6% in the 4 years to 2019."

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"As of 2019, the Glasgow City Region Deal has supported more than 8,000 young people into work, and has boosted local businesses by £22 million - the value of City Deal contracts won by companies across the region."

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"Pre-Covid, Glasgow’s employment rate was increasing year-on-year, reaching a new high of 72.3% in 2019."

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"Almost 25% of Glasgow City Region’s goods and services are exported outside of Scotland."

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"Glasgow is the 9th most economically resilient city among mid-sized European cities when it comes to ingredients for minimising the economic impacts of unforeseen shocks and changes."

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"Glasgow has the 4th highest creative job salaries in the UK."

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"The combined enterprise value of all start-ups & scale-up companies located within the Glasgow City Region is currently worth £2.7bn."

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"Glasgow was named 2nd best UK city to start a business in 2022. Known for its industrial prowess, creativity and unique charm, the city came top of the list for infrastructure and also ranked highly for cost of living."

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"Glasgow-based Phlo, billed as the “Deliveroo of pharmacy”, has attracted £10 million of investment to power its growth ambitions."

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