Minister for Employment and Investment

The Minister for Employment and Investment, commonly referred to as the Employment Minister is a junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. As a result, the Minister does not attend the Scottish Cabinet. The incumbent reports to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic.^[2]

Minister for Employment and Investment
Scottish Gaelic: Ministear airson Cosnaidh agus Tasgaidh
Incumbent Tom Arthur since 8 May 2024
Style	Minister (within parliament) Employment and Investment Minister (informal) Scottish Employment and Investment Minister (outwith Scotland)
Member of	Scottish Parliament Scottish Government
Reports to	Scottish Parliament
Seat	Edinburgh
Appointer	First Minister
Inaugural holder	Annabelle Ewing Minister for Youth and Women's Employment
Formation	12 November 2014
Salary	£106,185 per annum (2024)[1] (including £72,196 MSP salary)
Website	www.gov.scot

Responsibilities

As well as supporting the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, specific responsibilities of the Minister for Employment and Investment are:^[2]

Fair work

• effective worker voice, including trade unions
• employability programmes
• four day working week
• Living Wage and Living Hours
• Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE)
• workplace employment and equalities incl. gender, disability and race employment, addressing the pay gap^[2]

Investment and regeneration

• cities investment and strategy
• City Centre Recovery Taskforce
• regeneration policy and the place based investment programme
• retail policy, recovery and strategy
• town centre regeneration including business improvement districts
• community wealth building
• social enterprise
• employee-owned businesses^[2]

History

The post of Minister for Youth and Women's Employment within the Scottish Government was recreated on 21 November 2014, but had existed in the very recent past (until April 2014) under a different title. The post of Minister for Employability and Training was abolished as part of the cabinet reshuffle in June 2018. The post was reinstated for the Swinney government in 2024 under Minister for Employment and Investment to assist the newly appointed Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes.

The Junior Ministerial post of Minister for Youth Employment was created on 7 December 2011 following the recommendations of the Smith Group.^[3] From April 2014, this was promoted to a Cabinet Secretary position, as Cabinet Secretary for Training, Youth and Women's Employment. The November 2014 Cabinet reshuffle saw the Cabinet Secretary position changed to Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training. In May 2016, Nicola Sturgeon retitled the post to Minister for Employability and Training.

List of office holders

Name		Portrait	Entered Office	Left Office	Party	First Minister
Minister for Youth and Women's Employment
	Annabelle Ewing		21 November 2014	18 May 2016	Scottish National Party	Nicola Sturgeon
Minister for Employability and Training
	Jamie Hepburn		18 May 2016	27 June 2018	Scottish National Party	Nicola Sturgeon
Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work[4]
	Richard Lochhead		20 May 2021[5]	29 March 2023	Scottish National Party	Nicola Sturgeon
Minister for Employment and Investment
	Tom Arthur		8 May 2024	Incumbent	Scottish National Party	John Swinney

See also

• Scottish Parliament
• Scottish Government