Scotland's Labour Market Trends - Payrolled Employees Slight Increase

11th June 2024

Early seasonally adjusted estimates for May 2024 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that there were 2.46 million payrolled employees in Scotland, a rise of 0.5 per cent (12,000) compared with May 2023. This compares with the UK where the number of payrolled employees rose by 0.6 per cent over the same period.

• early seasonally adjusted estimates for May 2024 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that median monthly pay for payrolled employees in Scotland was £2,411, an increase of 5.8 per cent compared with May 2023. This is higher than the growth in median monthly pay for the UK over the same period (5.2 per cent). Changes over time are based on median monthly pay estimates rounded to the nearest pound.

• In May 2024, the claimant count was 108,100, an increase of 3,000 (2.9 per cent) over the month but a decrease of 2,400 (-2.2 per cent) over the year. The claimant count unemployment rate in May 2024 was 3.7 per cent, compared with 4.3 per cent for the UK as a whole. Due to increased volatility of the ONS Labour Force Survey estimates resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, estimates of quarterly change should be treated with additional caution and ONS recommend using them as part of our suite
of labour market indicators alongside Pay As You Earn Real Time Information estimates and claimant count data.

Estimates sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey are presented for February to April 2024, compared with the quarter before (November 2023 to January 2024).
Please note percentage point changes are based on unrounded data.

• the estimates for February to April 2024 indicate that over the quarter the unemployment rate increased, the employment rate decreased and the inactivity rate increased.

• the unemployment rate (16 and over) in Scotland was 4.7 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's unemployment rate was above the UK rate of 4.4 per cent.

• the employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work) in Scotland was 73.1 per cent, down 1.3 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's employment rate was below the UK rate of 74.3 per cent.

• the economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 years who were not working and not seeking or available to work) in Scotland was 23.2 per cent, up 1.0 percentage point over the quarter. Scotland's economic inactivity rate was above the UK rate of 22.3 per cent.

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