Scots employment figures reach a new record high

THE number of people in work in Scotland has reached a record high, while the country's jobless total has fallen by a massive 19,000.

Scotland 'not fully recovered' from recession

The picture in Scotland was mirrored across the UK where unemployment fell by 99,000 in the three months to November last year. The impact of the recent North Sea job losses –with 760 redundancies announced last week – will not show in the figures for some months.

Scotland’s jobless total now stands at 152,000, but the unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent remains higher than the wider UK rate of 5.1%, official figures yesterday showed. The number of Scots in a job has increased by 21,000 and now stands at a record 2.63 million.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “These positive figures mean more people in Scotland are in work, better able to support their families and contributing to our economic growth and security. The UK government is delivering the foundations for a stronger and more resilient economy and Scotland is benefitting from that.”

Wage increases have fallen to 2 per cent, slightly down on last year. The employment rate north of the Border has increased to 74.9 per cent, the highest level on record. Scotland now outperforms the UK as a whole.

Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training Roseanna Cunningham said: “Employment has continued to rise and unemployment to fall – with more Scots in work than ever before. Youth employment figures continue to be strong, out-performing the UK statistics.”

Across the UK, unemployment has fallen to a near eight-year low and a record number of people are in work.

Almost 23 million people are in a full-time job, 436,000 more than a year earlier, while 8.4 million are working part-time, up by 152,000.

Employment Minister Priti Patel said: “There are now more people in work than ever before and wages are growing - a credit to hard-working Brits