Labour Market Trends: April 2026

This publication contains:

• monthly estimates of the number of payrolled employees and their median earnings which cover the period to March 2026. Data are sourced from the HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system where people are recorded through the Real Time Information (RTI) system
• Claimant Count estimates which cover the period to March 2026
• the ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity. Estimates cover the period to December 2025 to February 2026

Earnings and employment statistics from HMRC’s PAYE RTI are Accredited official statistics. All other statistics included in this release are Official statistics in development. Official statistics in development may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Key Points

• early seasonally adjusted estimates for March 2026 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland, a decrease of 0.1% (-3,000) compared with March 2025. This compares with the UK where the number of payrolled employees decreased by 0.2% over the same period
• early seasonally adjusted estimates for March 2026 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that median monthly pay for payrolled employees in Scotland was £2,619, an increase of 4.0% in nominal terms compared with March 2025. This is lower than the growth in median monthly pay for the UK over the same period (4.3%).  
• in March 2026, the estimated claimant count in Scotland was 107,800, an increase of 2,000 (1.8%) over the month and an increase of 1,800 (1.7%) over the year. The claimant count unemployment rate estimate in March 2026 was 3.7%, compared with 4.4% for the UK as a whole

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for January to March 2025 onwards include the full impact of the recovery effort made to the LFS data collection and sampling methods introduced by ONS from January 2024. However, these estimates may still be subject to the effect of further ongoing improvements. An increased amount of volatility will remain in the LFS estimates from mid-2023 until the end of 2024. Therefore, ONS still advise caution when interpreting changes over time including these time periods and continue to recommend using the LFS estimates as part of the wider suite of labour market indicators, alongside Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information estimates.

Latest estimates sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey are for December 2025 to February 2026, compared with the quarter before (September to November 2025). Please note percentage point changes are based on unrounded data.

• estimates for December 2025 to February 2026 indicate that over the quarter, the employment rate decreased and the unemployment and economic inactivity rates increased
• the estimated unemployment rate (16 and over) in Scotland was 4.1%, up 0.4 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's unemployment rate was below the UK rate of 4.9%
• the estimated employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work) in Scotland was 74.0%, down 0.7 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's employment rate was below the UK rate of 75.0%
• the estimated 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 22.7%, up 0.4 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's economic inactivity rate was above the UK rate of 21.0%