Overview of the Scottish labour market [November 2008]

Comparable figures on the labour market1 between Scotland and the United Kingdom in the second quarter of 2008 are summarised in Table 1. Labour Force Survey (LFS) data show that in the second three months of 2008 the level of employment in Scotland rose by 0.2 per cent, to 2,543 thousand. Over the year to June 2008, however, employment in Scotland fell by 13 thousand, approximately 0.5 per cent. For the same period, UK employment rose by 1.3 per cent. The Scottish employment rate – those in employment as a percentage of the working age population – was 76.4 per cent, unchanged on the previous quarter but down 0.7 per cent compared to one year earlier.