Commenting on HMRC and ONS labour market statistics, Deputy First
Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic said:
“There are encouraging signs of growth in Scotland's economy with
unemployment appearing to fall, payrolled employment at near
record levels and higher median monthly pay than the rest of the
UK.
“Our draft Budget for next year was developed in partnership with
businesses to accelerate growth.
“It also sets out £90 million for Scotland's devolved
employability services to help more people into work. This
includes the introduction of specialist employability support by
summer 2025 to ensure that enhanced services are in place for
disabled people and those with long-term health conditions as
part of our plans to tackle economic inactivity.”
Background
Updated Scottish Government analysis
of relevant labour market estimates has been published
online.
HMRC early estimates show 2.46 million payrolled employees in
Scotland in November 2024, 2,000 less than the number of
payrolled employees in the previous month (October 2024) and
largely unchanged since November 2023. Estimates for November
2024 should be treated as provisional and are likely to be
revised when more data is received next month.
The latest LFS estimates show that there are no statistically
significant changes over the quarter or year in the headline
labour market rate estimates for Scotland.
In August to October 2024, Scotland's employment rate estimate
(16-64 years) was 73.2%. The unemployment rate estimate (16+
years) was 3.6% and the inactivity rate estimate (16-64 years)
was 24.0% in the same period.
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey, seasonally adjusted, August to
October 2024.
ONS have reweighted Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates. These
are official statistics in development. On 3 December 2024, ONS
published an article outlining how the
estimates have been affected by reweighting. These estimates were
included in the main ONS release on 17 December
2024.
Due to increased volatility in the Labour Force Survey (LFS)
estimates in recent periods, ONS has advised that users should be
cautious when interpreting short-term changes in the LFS
estimates. These should be viewed alongside the wider suite of
labour market indicators including the Claimant Count data and
HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information estimates. For further
details, please read ONS blog and article.
Estimates from the ONS Labour
Force Survey for August to October 2024 are official
statistics in development.
