Scottish unemployment rate grew in last quarter, statistics show
The unemployment rate in Scotland rose in the last quarter, according to the latest official figures.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows the unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over was 4.3% in the three months from January 2025 to March 2025.
This is an increase of 0.5% on the previous quarter but below the UK average of 4.5%.
It is also a decrease of 0.2% compared with the same quarter in 2024.
The figures show that in total 119,000 people aged 16 and over were out of work in Scotland in the last quarter.
Meanwhile the proportion of people aged 16 and over in employment rose to 74.5%, an increase of 0.4% on the previous quarter.
The figures show there were 2,662,000 people in employment between January and March.
Scottish Government analysis of HMRC early estimates shows there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland in April 2025, a decrease of 12,000 on the year before, and a decrease of 3,000 on March.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “These figures show Scotland’s labour market remains resilient despite challenging economic times.
“It’s encouraging to see the number of payrolled employees in Scotland remains high and their median monthly pay is close to the highest on record and higher than the UK overall.
“With global challenges impacting the economy, our Programme for Government outlines measures to create jobs and drive growth.
“This includes launching both Invest Scotland to showcase inward investment opportunities and the First Minister’s Start-up Challenge to support innovative businesses to start and grow.”
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray meanwhile said the governments at Holyrood and Westminister both “need to go further to help people into work”
The Labour MP said: “Today’s figures show we are making some progress but we still have much to do.
“We are working hard to secure Britain’s future, delivering renewal by kick-starting economic growth.
“In the past week, we’ve secured a landmark international trade deal with India and an economic deal with the US. Both will secure jobs and create opportunities and prosperity, putting more money in people’s pockets, a key part of our plan for change.”
Mr Murray continued: “Our ground-breaking Employment Rights Bill has improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers, our increase to the national minimum wage has brought a well-deserved pay rise of around £1,400 per year for up to 220,000 Scots and we’re planning the biggest shake-up of Jobcentres in a generation to help people back to work with the targeted assistance they really need.”
But he added: “The Scottish Government’s failure in this area means Scotland’s economic inactivity rate is still higher that the UK’s – which means both of Scotland’s governments need to go further to help people into work.”