Labour Market Trends: May 2025

Key Points

• early seasonally adjusted estimates for April 2025 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that there were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland, a decrease of 0.5% (-12,000) compared with April 2024. This compares with the UK where the number of payrolled employees had a decrease of 0.3% over the same period
• early seasonally adjusted estimates for April 2025 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information indicate that median monthly pay for payrolled employees in Scotland was £2,533, an increase of 5.8% compared with April 2024. This is lower than the growth in median monthly pay for the UK over the same period (6.4%). Changes over time are based on median monthly pay estimates rounded to the nearest pound
• in April 2025, the claimant count in Scotland was 107,300, an increase of 1,200 (1.2%) over the month and an increase of 1,800 (1.7%) over the year. The claimant count unemployment rate in April 2025 was 3.6%, compared with 4.5% for the UK as a whole

Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full impact of the recent improvements to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data collection and sampling methods introduced by ONS from January 2024 onwards. These estimates are therefore more likely to be representative of labour market conditions. However, an increased amount of volatility will remain in the LFS estimates from mid-2023 until the end of 2024. Therefore, ONS advise caution when interpreting changes over time including these time periods and continue to recommend using the LFS estimates as part of the suite of labour market indicators, alongside Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information estimates.

Estimates sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey are presented for January to March 2025, compared with the quarter before (October to December 2024). Please note percentage point changes are based on unrounded data.

• the estimates for January to March 2025 indicate that over the quarter, the economic inactivity rate decreased while the employment and unemployment rates increased
• the estimated unemployment rate (16 and over) in Scotland was 4.3%, up 0.5 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's unemployment rate was below the UK rate of 4.5%
• the estimated employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work) in Scotland was 74.5%, up 0.4 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 22.0%, down 0.8 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland's economic inactivity rate was above the UK rate of 21.4%