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Publication - Statistics

Labour Market Trends: August 2026

Published
18 August 2026
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Business, industry and innovation, Economy, Work and skills

Trends in Labour Market indicators from HMRC PAYE RTI, Claimant count, and ONS Labour Force Survey data covering Scotland and the UK.

Part of

Supporting documents

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 July 2026 indicate that there were 2.44 million payrolled employees in Scotland. Compared with July 2025, the number of payrolled employees decreased by 0.2% (down 6,000). This compares with a decrease of 0.3% for the UK over the same period.

The estimated number of payrolled employees remained broadly unchanged (down 1,000 employees) between June 2026 to July 2026.

Early estimates and changes over time based on these should be treated as provisional and are likely to be revised when more data for July is received next month.

Estimates for July 2026 are provisional as they are based on around 85% of information being available. When comparing the number of payrolled employees in June 2026 with the same period the previous year, the number of payrolled employees in Scotland decreased by 0.2% (down 5,000).

Chart 1: The number of payrolled employees in Scotland has continued to be above pre-pandemic levels since November 2021, reaching a peak in December 2023. Since then, the number of payrolled employees has been gradually decreasing.

Payrolled Employees, Scotland, June 2016 to July 2026, seasonally adjusted

Time series line chart showing estimated number of payrolled employeees for Scotland over time.

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC

Note: Early estimates for July 2026 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 before decreasing until November 2024. Since then the data has shown annual decreases in payrolled employees compared to the same period in the previous year

Annual Percentage Change in Payrolled Employees, Scotland, June 2017 to July 2026

Line chart showing a time series of annual change in payrolled employees for Scotland.

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC

Note: Early estimates for July 2026 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

Contact

For enquiries about this publication please contact:

Labour Market Statistics,
Office of the Chief Economic Adviser
E-mail: LMStats@gov.scot

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:

Office of the Chief Statistician
E-mail: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot

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