// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Swinney visits 'crisis' towns asking for help after 1,500 job losses
A major redevelopment is under way to improve the layout of Greenock but politicians say a jobs strategy is paramount
John Swinney is facing calls for government action to support one of Scotland's smallest council areas as it struggles with the cumulative loss of 1,500 jobs.
The first minister will spend much of the day touring Inverclyde at the invitation of the local authority to see for himself the special challenges facing the region.
Council leader Stephen McCabe says a drip feed of closures has left the area facing a desperate jobs crisis, on top of years of deindustrialisation and depopulation.
Swinney will meet local politicians and a community group as well as managers from the nationalised Ferguson shipyard, a week after they announced plans to shed a quarter of its workforce.
Ferguson shipyard to cut a quarter of its workforce
Swinney urged by council chief to help tackle 'jobs crisis'
Other employers which have cut jobs in recent years include IBM, Amazon, BPI Berry, EE, Cigna International Health, RBS and Kindryl.
McCabe believes the piecemeal shedding of jobs has not attracted the same political attention as other high-profile closures.
The impact is magnified, he argues, because Inverclyde has a population of just 78,000, having fallen by a fifth in the past 50 years.