Labour Market Trends: November 2025

HMRC payrolled employees

This information is based on monthly seasonally adjusted 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 October 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 0.6% (-16,000). This compares with a decrease of 0.6% for the UK over the same period.

The estimated number of payrolled employees decreased by 2,000 employees (-0.1%) from September 2025 to October 2025. Early estimates and changes over time based on these should be treated as provisional and are likely to be revised when more data for October is received next month.

In December 2020, the lowest point following the start of the pandemic, there were 83,000 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 October 2025 are provisional as they are based on around 85% of information being available. When comparing the number of payrolled employees in September 2025 with the same period the previous year, the number of payrolled employees in Scotland decreased by 0.5% (-13,000).

Chart 1: The estimated 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. The number of payrolled employees has decreased from a peak in July 2024 and has remained relatively unchanged during 2025.

Payrolled Employees, Scotland, September 2015 to October 2025, seasonally adjusted

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

Annual Percentage Change in Payrolled Employees, Scotland, September 2016 to October 2025

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