Labour Market Trends: April 2025

HMRC payrolled employees

This information is based on monthly estimates of paid employees and their pay from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data.

The latest early payrolled employee estimates for March 2025 indicate that there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland. Compared with the same month the year before, the number of payrolled employees decreased by 0.4% (-11,000). This compares with a decrease of 0.2% for the UK over the same period.

The estimated number of payrolled employees decreased by 4,000 employees (0.2 per cent) from February 2025 to March 2025. This monthly change should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data for March is received next month.

In December 2020, the lowest point following the start of the pandemic, there were 82,000 fewer payrolled employees in Scotland than prior to the pandemic (February 2020). However, the estimated number of payrolled employees has generally been increasing since December 2020 and has continued to be above the pre-coronavirus level (February 2020) since November 2021.

Estimates for March 2025 are provisional as they are based on around 85% of information being available. When comparing the number of payrolled employees in February 2025 with the same period the previous year, the number of payrolled employees in Scotland decreased by 0.2% (-5,000).

Chart 1: The number of payrolled employees in Scotland declined between February and December 2020. However, it has continued to be above the pre-coronavirus level since November 2021, reaching a peak in December 2023. The number of payrolled employees remained relatively unchanged during 2024 but has declined in 2025

Payrolled Employees, Scotland, February 2015 to March 2025, seasonally adjusted

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for March 2025 are provided to give an indication of the likely level of payrolled employees as well as their median pay in the latest period. The figures are based on around 85% of information being available. They are considered of lower quality and may be subject to revision in next month's release when between 98% to 99% of data will be available.

Chart 2: Annual growth in the number of payrolled employees in Scotland reached a peak in March 2022, however data for recent months show a decrease in payrolled employees compared to the same period in the previous year

Annual Percentage Change in Payrolled Employees, Scotland, February 2016 to March 2025

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for March 2025 are provided to give an indication of the likely level of payrolled employees as well as their median pay in the latest period. The figures are based on around 85% of information being available. They are considered of lower quality and may be subject to revision in next month's release when between 98% to 99% of data will be available.