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Scottish Secretary reacts to Labour Market Statistics

The unemployment rate in Scotland is 3.3 per cent

The latest Labour Market Statistics for Scotland are聽聽and show figures for July to September 2024, compared with the quarter before (April to June 2024).

The unemployment rate in Scotland was 3.3 per cent, down 1.1 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland鈥檚 unemployment rate was below the UK rate of 4.3 per cent.

The employment rate in Scotland was 73.7 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland鈥檚 employment rate was below the UK rate of 74.8 per cent.

Commenting on the figures, Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray, said:

鈥淕etting people into work is key to delivering economic growth and our Get Britain Working White Paper will tackle inactivity in the labour market head on through measures including an overhaul of our Jobcentres.

鈥淲e鈥檙e making work pay聽by聽increasing聽the National Living Wage聽in April聽- delivering聽a pay rise of 拢1,400 a year for hundreds of thousands of full-time workers in Scotland.聽

鈥淲e鈥檙e also聽banning exploitative zero-hour contracts聽as part of聽the biggest upgrade to workers鈥� rights in a generation聽through our Employment Rights Bill to deliver better job security for those in work.鈥�

Background:

Summary:

  • The unemployment rate in Scotland was 3.3 per cent, down 1.1 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland鈥檚 unemployment rate was below the UK rate of 4.3 per cent.

  • The employment rate in Scotland was 73.7 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland鈥檚 employment rate was below the UK rate of 74.8 per cent.

  • The economic inactivity rate in Scotland was 23.7 per cent, up 0.6 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland鈥檚 economic inactivity rate was above the UK rate of 21.8 per cent

  • Wage growth UK-wide: Annual growth in employees鈥� average regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 4.8%; growth was previously lower than this in April to June 2022, when it was 4.7%. Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers鈥� housing costs (CPIH), was 1.9% for regular pay and 1.4% for total pay.

Updates to this page

Published 12 November 2024