Regional Employment Patterns in Scotland: Statistics from the Annual Population Survey, 2015

Summary

People in Work

Record high employment level seen in 2015, driven by the second highest women's employment level since comparable records began.

Employment rates for women increased to 70.2%, the highest since comparable records began.

The gender employment gap in Scotland was 6.0 percentage points, 4.0 percentage points lower than the UK and the lowest since comparable records began.

Gap between employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people was almost 40 percentage points.

Men driving decrease in employment rates for younger workers since 2008, while women drive increase for those aged 50-64.

Youth employment rates increased in 21 local authority areas over the year as overall youth employment rate in Scotland increased by 3.0 percentage points to 56.2%.

Number of workers aged 65 and over has almost doubled since 2004, helping drive higher employment rates for older workers.

Full-time employment levels for women increased to 727,500, the highest level since comparable records began.

Private sector employment in 2015 was 1,876,500 - amongst the highest on record since the series began.

A record high 48.4% of working people (aged 16-64) have Further or Higher education qualifications (or equivalent) in Scotland.

Over a third (34.6%) of workers aged 25-64 in Scotland were graduates in 2015 - the highest on record from the APS.

People not in Work

Unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 5.8% over the year, but is still 0.9 percentage points higher than in 2008.

The youth unemployment rate in Scotland decreased by 2.7 percentage points over the year to 14.3% in 2015.

The number of 16-19 year olds who were NEET in 2015 increased by 3,000 over the year to 23,000.

Less than half (48.4%) of all unemployed people in Scotland have been unemployed for more than 6 months.