Local Employment

Information last updated  by HFRA Chairmanon 26 April 2006 (Comment)

The main employers within the Aberdeenshire area are Technip Offshore UK Ltd (subsea contracting), International Paper UK Ltd, Stewart Milne Group Ltd (construction), ANM Group Ltd (livestock auctions), Mathers (Inverurie) Ltd (meat processors), Aberdeenshire Council and the main supermarket chains.

However Aberdeen remains the primary source of employment for residents in the area and is influenced particularly by the performance of the oil and gas sector.  High proportions of the working population commute daily to Aberdeen.  The area benefits from high frequency public transport and is served by both the Aberdeen to Inverness railway and the Aberdeen to Inverness A96 trunk road.

Inverurie and Westhill have been developed as attractive alternative locations to Aberdeen for commercial and industrial developments, while the Don valley is notable for the manufacture of paper.

Over the last five years, an average of around 4.8 hectares per annum of land has been developed on designated industrial estates, roughly 34% of the Aberdeenshire total over this period. Almost 45% of this development was in Westhill with a further 32% in Kintore. In terms of future developments,  the area has just under 30 hectares of marketable industrial land, over half of which (16 ha) is immediately available for development. The marketable land is located primarily in Westhill, Inverurie and Kintore with smaller sites in Insch and Blackburn.

Total unemployment rate in the local area in August 2005 was estimated to be 0.7%.