On headline indicators like the unemployment and employment rates, things have barely been better in the Scottish and UK labour market.
Scotland’s unemployment rate is at 3.2%, a record low since the current series began in 1992. The UK saw its unemployment rate drop to 3.8%, its lowest since 1974.
This strong performance on headline indicators holds not only in aggregate, but for both men and women.
The UK female unemployment rate is the lowest rate since records began in 1971 of 3.7%, the employment rate for women stayed at its record high of 71.8% recorded in the last set of data.
For men the unemployment rate at 3.9% is its lowest since 1975, with the employment rate at 80.3%, down only slightly on its recent near two decade high at the end of last year.
Authors
The Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) is a leading economy research institute based in the Department of Economics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.