Scotland's Labour Market Overview: December 2023

Key points

This release follows the headline Labour Market Trends publication to provide more detailed trends from a wider range of labour market data  for Scotland. Trends are shown for Scotland with some comparisons provided with the UK.

Employment

• employment in Scotland varies by age group. Since October 2006 to September 2007, the employment rate for 16 to 24 year olds has been consistently lower than the employment rate for any other age group
• the disability employment rate gap has gradually decreased from 38.2 percentage points (pp) in October 2013 to September 2014 to 28.7 pp in October 2022 to September 2023
• the minority ethnic employment rate gap has generally been decreasing from 17.2 percentage points (pp) in October 2017 to September 2018 to 10.0 pp in October 2022 to September 2023
• the latest early payrolled employee estimates for November 2023 from HMRC Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) indicate that there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland
• over the year to October 2023, payrolled employee growth varies by industry sector. The energy production and supply industry sector has shown the largest percentage growth in payrolled employees over the year
• the latest early estimates for November 2023 from HMRC RTI indicate that median monthly pay for payrolled employees in Scotland was £2,334
• adjusted for inflation (using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH)), real earnings have grown by 2.4 per cent over the year to October 2023

Unemployment

• unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 in Scotland has been consistently higher than the unemployment rate for any other age group
• the majority of people aged 16 and over who are unemployed have been unemployed for six months or less (62.4 per cent)
• online job adverts in Scotland are currently 14.1 per cent higher than in February 2020

Economic Inactivity

• economic inactivity in Scotland varies by age group. Since October 2011 to September 2012, the inactivity rate for 16 to 24 year olds has been consistently higher than the inactivity rate for any other age group
• in Scotland, the main reason given for being inactive was “long-term sick”. In October 2022 to September 2023, 31.7 per cent of those people aged 16 to 64 who were inactive gave their reason for being inactive as “long-term sick”