There were 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland in April 2024, a rise of 6,000 compared with April 2023.

That’s according to early seasonally adjusted estimates for April 2024 from HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information.

Median monthly pay for payrolled employees in Scotland was £2,386 in April 2024, an increase of 4.8% compared with April 2023.

The “claimant count” in Scotland was 104,200 in April 2024, a decrease of 900 over the month and a decrease of 8,800 over the year.

The claimant count unemployment rate in Scotland in April 2024 was 3.6%, compared with 4.1% for the UK as a whole.

Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said: “It is positive to see that HMRC early estimates, published today, show 2.45 million payrolled employees in Scotland in April – 6,000 more than a year ago.

“However, today’s data also reflects the ongoing challenges facing our economy, including the cost of living crisis, and is why we are investing more than £5 billion to grow and transform Scotland’s economic landscape.

“Scotland is open for business and the Scottish Government is committed to working hand-in-hand with business to use the limited powers of devolution to help more people into work through employability and skills support.”

Meanwhile, estimates sourced from the ONS Labour Force Survey for the January to March 2024 quarter showed that Scotland’s official unemployment rate was 4.4%, down 0.1 percentage points over the quarter.