Unemployment in Scotland falls for second quarter in a row

UNEMPLOYMENT in Scotland has fallen for the second time in a row, new figures published this morning have revealed.

Dole queues fell by 10,000 between January and March, on the back of a 12,000 drop in the previous quarterly figures.

It means there are now 221,000 unemployed people in Scotland, equivalent to 8.2% of the working population. The figure is the same for the whole of the UK.

The claimant count in Scotland fell by 900 in April to stand at 142,000. The level is up by 3,000 on a year ago.

The labour market statistics also showed employment in Scotland rose by 24,000 over the quarter to March.

The number of those in employment in Scotland now stands at 2,482,000.

The Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore said:

“The further fall in Scottish unemployment is encouraging and another step towards getting our economy back on track. It follows a similar fall last month and is a positive sign that people are continuing to find work. That is good news for people and families across the country.

“We still face difficult economic circumstances but taking action to tackle the deficit and create growth is helping create the confidence and stability we need to create and sustain jobs.”

Finance Secretary John Swinney said: “These figures show again that Scotland has a higher employment rate – for the eighteenth consecutive month of labour market statistics – and a lower rate of economic inactivity than the UK as a whole.”

He added: “The figures show that the actions of the Scottish Government and our agencies are delivering in tough times – just yesterday Aker Solutions announced plans to add another 500 jobs to its current 2,700 strong operation in the North East, on top of recent positive announcements including Gamesa’s decision to bring their wind power manufacturing facility and 800 jobs to Leith, and GlaxoSmithKline’s £100 million expansion plans for sites in Montrose and Irvine.”