SCOTLAND’s employment rate is at its highest recorded level, according to new figures released yesterday.

Unemployment was down by 0.5 per cent, around 12,000 to 107,000 between April and June.

The Office for National Statistics figures means there are now 2,650,000 people in employment in Scotland, around 86,000 more than the pre-recession peak.

Scotland’s employment rate of 75.2 per cent is just slightly ahead of the UK figures of 75.1 per cent.

The UK unemployment rate fell 0.2 per cent in the same period to 4.4 per cent, while the London rate fell 0.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

Almost all of the recent rise in employment is from people becoming self-employed.

There was also good news for youth unemployment, which fell to 9.9 per cent.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “This is a further vote of confidence in our economy, coming after GDP figures showing Scotland’s growth rate was four times faster that of the UK over the last quarter, and recent reports of accelerating growth across the private sector.

“It is also encouraging to see that we continue to perform strongly in female participation, with the female unemployment rate falling by 0.9 percentage points over the year to 3.6 per cent. Scotland’s female unemployment rate continues to be lower than the UK rate. Youth unemployment has fallen from 14.6 per cent since 2007 and now stands at 8.4 per cent, and is now among the lowest of all EU countries.”

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “It is good news that Scotland’s employment has reached a record high. Unemployment is at a near historic low, at 3.9 per cent, which is a trend I hope to see continue.

“The UK Government will continue to work to strengthen Scotland’s economy, and I encourage the Scottish Government to continue to use their economic levers to increase Scotland’s prosperity.”

Writing on the Fraser of Allander institute’s blog, Stuart McIntyre, said the figure were good news, but warned that the truth of Scotland’s labour market may be more complex.

“While headline indicators are good, and they are good, we need to bear in mind that, as always, the health of Scotland’s labour market is more complicated than headline numbers,” he wrote.

“In particular, we need to better understand the nature and quality of destinations that those leaving unemployment are going into.

“We note that almost all of the recent rise in employment is among the self-employed, which may have implications for tax revenues and the number of hours and type of work undertaken. More work needs to be done to explore these wider implications.”

Scottish Chambers of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron said the figures were encouraging.

She said: “Strong labour market figures are still not translating into increased productivity or the sort of wage growth that we would normally be seeing with fewer people out of work.

“This persistent lack of increased productivity and wage growth will add further pressure on consumer demand, business margins and future business investment.”

It wasn’t all good news. The ONS figures showed that the meagre increase in wages across the UK was still far behind inflation.

Excluding bonuses, earnings rose by two per cent year-on-year in the first quarter.

However, when the impact of inflation of 2.9 per cent is factored in, real weekly wages fell by 0.5 per cent.