Scottish employment numbers hit record high

Edinburgh's Princes Street. Picture: Jon Savage

Employment in Scotland reached a record high last year, with an increasing number of over-65s still in work.

A total of 2,618,100 people aged 16 years and over were in employment in Scotland in 2017 - the highest level on record.

This included 84,700 people aged 65 and over who were still working, almost twice as many as there were ten years ago.

The figures, revealed in a new report on regional employment patterns in Scotland, showed the overall employment rate for 2017 was 74.3% - the highest ever but lower than the UK rate of 74.7% for last year.

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A total of 322,900 Scots were self-employed in 2017, close to the highest-ever level since the research began, with an increasing number of women opting to be their own boss.

The number of Scots aged 16 and older who were unemployed reached the lowest level on record at 111,200 in 2017.

Scotland's overall unemployment rate was 4.1%, below the UK rate of 4.4% - but the figures also showed almost half (46.1%) of all Scots who were out of work had been without a job for six months or more.

In addition, an increasing number of Scots were classed as being "economically inactive" - meaning they are not in work but are not looking for a job - a group which includes many students and people with caring responsibilities.

There were 768,900 people in this category in 2017, an increase of 15,100 since 2007. Scotland's rate of economic inactivity was also higher than the UK, at 22.5% compared to 21.8%.

The figures also showed lower employment rates for Scots who are either disabled or part of a minority ethnic population.

The proportion of able-bodied people in work was 81.2%, compared to a total of 45.4% for people suffering from some kind of disability.