Scottish Secretary reacts to Labour Market Stats
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-18)

Today’s figures show there are 77,000 workers in Scotland on zero-hours contracts, who will benefit from increased job security thanks to UK Government

The latest Labour Market Statistics for Scotland are published today - see here (https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/regionallabourmarket/february2025#latest-headline-estimate) and here (https://www.gov.scot/publications/labour-market-trends-february-2025/).

Commenting on the figures, Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray, said:

Having access to well-paid work is a right that should be afforded to all. That’s why we’re creating jobs and opportunities through our Plan for Change and truly making work pay to help raise living standards right across the UK.

We are putting more money in people’s pockets - around 200,000 workers in Scotland are expected to benefit from a direct pay rise due to the increases to the national minimum and national living wages from April. Year on year, wages after inflation have grown at the fastest rates in three years since last July - worth an extra £20 a week after inflation.

Help to find work will be more tailored with our wide-reaching Jobcentre reforms and by encouraging investment, we’re boosting businesses of all sizes to deliver growth.

Background

Today’s figures show there are 77,000 workers in Scotland on zero-hours contracts, who will benefit from increased job security when the UK Government implements measures which seek to end exploitative zero hours contracts.

These measures are:

A right to guaranteed hours, where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period. This initial reference period will be specified in regulations and is anticipated to be 12 weeks.

New rights to reasonable notice of shifts, with proportionate payment for shifts cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice.

Today’s figures for January 2025 show that there were 2.46 million payrolled employees in Scotland, a decrease of -0.1 per cent (-2,000) compared with January 2024. This compares with the UK where the number of payrolled employees had an increase of 0.2% over the same period.

Also in January 2025 the claimant count unemployment rate was 3.8 per cent, compared with 4.6 per cent for the UK as a whole.

Quarterly figures are also published today and estimates from October to December 2024 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 3.8 per cent, up 0.5 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland’s unemployment rate was below the UK rate of 4.4 per cent

The estimated employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work) in Scotland was 74.2 per cent, up 0.9 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland’s employment rate was below the UK rate of 74.9 per cent

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 22.8 per cent, down 1.2 percentage points over the quarter. Scotland’s economic inactivity rate was above the UK rate of 21.5 per cent.