Unemployment on the Rise Across Scotland, Official Figures Show

The number of people officially regarded as being unemployed across Scotland increased during the three months between April and June this year.

Roughly 12,000 more people were added to the unemployment numbers in Scotland during the second quarter of the year, with the overall figure now up to around 102,000.

During the same period, the number of people who are officially employed fell by around 1,000 to stand at just less than 2.6 million nationwide.

The figures relate to people aged between 16 and 64, with Scotland’s employment rate standing at 75.4 per cent at the end of June, which is slightly below the UK-wide figure of 76.1 per cent.

However, despite having risen in recent months, rates of unemployment in Scotland are, at 3.6 per cent, lower than the figure for the whole of the UK, which stood at 3.9 per cent at the end of June.

Indeed, Jamie Hepburn, business minister at the Scottish parliament, points out that Scotland’s unemployment rate has been tracked below the UK-wide figure for each of the last 11 months.

Nonetheless, there are concerns that uncertainty around Brexit and what the future holds for the UK is having a damaging impact on the Scottish economy and on employment prospects across the country.

“While Scotland’s economy and jobs market remains strong and diverse, the UK government’s EU exit plans - particularly the increasing likeliness of a No Deal Brexit - will cost jobs and make people poorer,” says Mr Hepburn.

“Even with the best possible preparations, leaving the EU without a deal will hurt Scotland’s businesses, disrupt trade and impact on all aspects of society.”

In recent days, official data released by the Office for National Statistics showed that the overall scale of economic activity across the UK contracted by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

If negative growth is recorded again during the third quarter, then the UK will be regarded as having fallen into an economic recession.

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