SEVENTEEN people are chasing every job vacancy in Falkirk district.

Shock new statistics show employment opportunities in this area are almost half the Scottish average.

Politician and business experts have united in calling for urgent action to safeguard jobs in all sectors, create employment opportunities and help those who find themselves facing the dole queue.

Across Scotland there are 10 applicants for every job vacancy, according to Scottish Trade Union Congress calculations, based on January unemployment statistics.

However, in Falkirk the rate is 17.16, while in neighbouring Stirling the rate is 10.38 and in Clackmannanshire 21.81.

At last week's Falkirk Business Panel meeting, Maureen Campbell, Falkirk Council's director of community services, warned the picture could become bleaker.

She admitted: "We are expecting a fairly significant growth in unemployment during the first quarter of 2009."

The director said Falkirk district was already affected by the slowdown in the construction industry, but was now noticing the effects of a downturn in consumer spending affecting the distribution sector which has a strong presence in the area.

She added: "Unemployment in the financial sector, particularly in Edinburgh, may not appear to affect us, but there are around 2500 people living in Falkirk who work there and could be affected."

Urging the Government to accept that unemployment was "a national emergency", STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said: "Rising unemployment has been matched by an equally shocking decline in job vacancies.

"The Government can no longer claim there is plenty of work available when there are as many as 20 dole claimants per JobCentre vacancy in parts of Scotland."

Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson said the figures just confirmed what he had heard from constituents.

He said: "I'm afraid that the situation could get worse before it gets better, so the situation is very concerning.

"Falkirk's unemployment rate is increasing and appears to be increasing at a higher rate than other parts of Scotland. Clearly all those agencies with responsibility, such as the local authority, have to look at trying to address the problem."

Falkirk East MSP Cathy Peattie called on the Scottish Government to do more to help, particularly the construction industry.

She said: "Workers involved with the Grangemouth High project told me that they had no other work to go to when it finished. We should be looking to build more schools and more low-cost housing, particularly for rent, to ease the problems."