Number of Scots in work falls by 34,000 over three months

Scotland’s unemployment rate remained lower than the UK’s – despite the number of people in work falling by 34,000 over the last three months.

Official figures for January to March 2026 showed 123,000 Scots were jobless, giving an unemployment rate of 4.4%.

This is below the 5% unemployment rate recorded across the UK.

But Scotland’s employment rate was lower than the UK’s, with Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures for January to March showing a total of 2,646,000 people in work – 34,000 less than October to December 2025 and a drop of 16,000 compared with the first three months of last year.

Scotland now has an employment rate of 73.7%, ONS data showed, with this below the rate of 75% recorded across the UK as a whole.

The fall in employment came as the figures showed the unemployment rate rising by 0.7 points from the period October to December last year, with the total number of Scots who are out of work having increased by 18,000 over the quarter.

Meanwhile, 773,000 people in Scotland were classed as being economically inactive over January to March, with this total 16,000 higher than the previous three months and 23,000 more than the same period in 2025.