Labour Market Trends: March 2026

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 February 2026 indicate that there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland. Compared with February 2025, the number of payrolled employees decreased by 0.2% (-5,000). This compares with a decrease of 0.2% for the UK over the same period.

The estimated number of payrolled employees decreased by 1,000 employees (-0.1%) from January 2026 to February 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 February is received next month.

Estimates for February 2026 are provisional as they are based on around 85% of information being available. When comparing the number of payrolled employees in January 2026 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 decreased by 81,000 payrolled employees 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. Since December 2023, the number of payrolled employees had been gradually decreasing to mid-2025 and has remained fairly constant since.

Payrolled Employees, Scotland, January 2016 to February 2026, seasonally adjusted

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for February 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 steadily throughout the remainder of 2022, 2023 and 2024. Data for 2025 generally show an annual decrease in payrolled employees compared to the same period in the previous year

Annual Percentage Change in Payrolled Employees, Scotland, January 2017 to February 2026

Source: PAYE RTI, all industries, seasonally adjusted, HMRC
Note: Early estimates for February 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.