Delivering job search services in rural labour markets: the role of ICT

similar in both sample groups (at 35.5 years in West Lothian and 37.7 years in Wick and

Sutherland).

INSERT TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE

The educational attainment of the sample groups was rather similar, despite the presence
of a higher proportion of long-term unemployed people in the Wick and Sutherland
cohort. The vast majority of respondents in both areas had fairly limited qualifications —
73% of West Lothian job seekers and 79% of those from Wick and Sutherland were not
qualified to Scottish Higher Grade/Scottish Vocational Qualification Level 3, the level of
qualification generally required for admittance to higher education in Scotland (see Table
2). Only around 45% of the general Scottish labour force are similarly unqualified
(Scottish Office, 1998).

INSERT TABLE 2 ABOUT HERE

Findings: ICT and job seeking in rural areas

Job search methods used by respondents

The job search methods currently used by unemployed people in these two very different
rural labour markets should offer some indication as to the relative importance of ICT,
social networking and more traditional, ‘formal’ services, and the potential for an
expansion in the role of Internet or other ICT-based provision. Our initial findings
highlight the different approaches adopted in the more remote Wick and Sutherland
labour markets, where Jobcentre facilities are few or non-existent, and the more
centrally-located West Lothian. In remote rural areas such as Wick and Sutherland, it
would appear that informal methods (ranging from direct approaches to employers to

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