Labour Market Trends: February 2025

HMRC payrolled employees (experimental)

This information is based on experimental monthly estimates of paid employees and their pay from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data.

The latest early payrolled employee estimates for January 2025 indicate that there were 2.46 million payrolled employees in Scotland. Compared with the same month the year before, the number of payrolled employees decreased by -0.1 per cent (-2,000). This compares with an increase of 0.2% for the UK over the same period.

Payrolled employment increased by 5,000 employees (0.2 per cent) from December 2024 to January 2025. This monthly change should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data for January is received next month.

In December 2020, the lowest point following the start of the pandemic, there were 82,000 fewer payrolled employees in Scotland than prior to the pandemic (February 2020). However, the estimated number of payrolled employees has generally been increasing since December 2020 and has continued to be above the pre-coronavirus level (February 2020) since November 2021.

Estimates for January 2025 are provisional as they are based on around 85% of information being available. When comparing the number of payrolled employees in December 2024 with the same period the previous year, the number of payrolled employees in Scotland decreased by -0.4 per cent (-9,000).

Chart 1: Number of payrolled employees in Scotland declined between February and December 2020. However, it has continued to be above the pre-coronavirus level since November 2021, reaching a peak in July 2024. The number of payrolled employees remained relatively unchanged during 2024

Payrolled Employees, Scotland, December 2019 to January 2025, seasonally adjusted

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for January 2025 are provided to give an indication of the likely level of payrolled employees as well as their median pay in the latest period. The figures are based on around 85% of information being available. They are considered of lower quality and may be subject to revision in next month's release when between 98% to 99% of data will be available.

Chart 2: The annual growth in payrolled employees in Scotland reached a peak in March 2022 but has fallen over 2024 with a similar rate of annual change for the last few months

Annual Percentage Change in Payrolled Employees, Scotland, December 2019 to January 2025

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for January 2025 are provided to give an indication of the likely level of payrolled employees as well as their median pay in the latest period. The figures are based on around 85% of information being available. They are considered of lower quality and may be subject to revision in next month's release when between 98% to 99% of data will be available