By Vaughan Hart, managing director at Scottish Building Federation

Dear Editor

It’s good news that unemployment in Scotland has fallen according to the latest official labour market figures.

Meanwhile in construction, the latest figures show a 4 per cent decline in employment within the Scottish industry over the 12 months to September 2014.

We hope to see signs of a rebound in employment numbers when updated figures for the end of last year are published next month. But these figures underline once again the major skills challenge the industry now faces.

Our number one priority remains to recruit more people into the Scottish construction sector. Otherwise, a shortage of skilled labour could become a major headwind for future growth.