Employment At Record High In Scotland

Employment levels in Scotland during January to December 2016 reached a record high of 2,579,700, reflecting a huge improvement to the Scottish labour market.

Scotland's Cheif Statistician published statistics on Regional Employment Patterns in Scotland from the Annual Population Survey on Tuesday. This publication presents annual estimates for a wide range of labour market indicators across local authority areas in Scotland for 2016.

The report found that the employment level for men, aged 16 and over, has increased by 13,900 over the year and is at the highest level since 2008. While the youth unemployment rate decreased by 2.3% over the year, with the you employment rate also decreasing by 0.7%.

Worryingly the trend reflected across the nation of pensioner workers has been reflected in the report, with the employment rate for people aged 65 and over increased from 5.2% in 2004 to 9.1% in 2016. Over half of workers over state pension age in Scotland said they has not yet retired because they were not ready to stop working.

A positive for the Scottish education system was reflected with 757,000 workers aged 25-64 being graduated in 2016. The highest on record. Worryingly though the number of 16-19 year olds who were not in education, employment or training in 2016 increased by 2,000 over the course of the year to a staggering 26,000. While further concern has been highlight for Equality Act disabled people, with the employment rate at only 42.9% of the population.

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