Employment boost for city as Tesco and Arnold Clark set to create jobs

Aug 27 2009 By Frank Hurley

JOBS joy for the city shone a ray of sunshine through the doom and gloom of recession.

Supermarket giants Tesco will create 800 jobs next year in Glasgow at its new customer services call centre for Tesco Personal Finance (TPF).

Tesco will get a £5 million Scottish Government grant to help start the centre in the first half of 2010.

First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This is a significant boost for Glasgow. It reinforces our reputation as a leading centre in a deal which will employ 700 workers Scotland-wide.

He said: "With the recession our announcement is a positive step in helping to combat unemployment.

"The extra jobs can partly be attributed to the stabilising of the car industry since the introduction of the government's scrappage scheme in May."

Meanwhile, city car tycoon Sir Arnold Clark says he will create 155 new jobs in Glasgow.

On the down side, city design centre, The Lighthouse, has gone into administration with the loss of 57 jobs.

Eleanor McAllister OBE, chairwoman of the board of The Lighthouse Trust, said: "We know the devastating effect this will have on our staff."

for financial services and highlights again the competitiveness of our skilled workforce."