Scotland’s employment rate fell slightly in the last quarter, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
Data showed the employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 fell slightly in the three months to April to 74.6%, down 1.8% on the previous quarter.
There were 2.572 million people in that age group in work over that period.
The employment rate north of the border was below the UK rate of 76%.
Scotland’s unemployment rate did not change in the last quarter.
ONS data showed the unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over was 3.1% between February and April this year, the same as in the previous quarter.
This was below the UK unemployment rate of 3.8% in the last quarter.
ONS figures showed that 85,000 people aged 16 and over in Scotland were unemployed between February and April.
Wellbeing Economy Secretary Neil Gray said: “The continued near-record unemployment rates for those aged 16 and over across Scotland and for men aged 16 and over are welcome.
“However, the economic outlook remains challenging, particularly with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“The Scottish Government is committed to supporting more people into work - including parents, disabled people and those with health and caring responsibilities - through employability and skills support, high-quality early learning and school age childcare provision, as well as improving access to flexible working.
“However, with certain industries still facing recruitment challenges, an urgent rethink of UK Government immigration policy is needed to enable increased access to the international labour and skills that Scotland needs for our economy and communities to flourish.
“With full powers over migration, Scotland could boost its workforce and tackle the recruitment challenges, many of which have been caused by the end of free movement and the hard Brexit imposed on Scotland by the UK Government.”
A UK Government spokesman responded: “Leaving the EU enabled us to introduce a points-based immigration system and we want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK’s domestic workforce instead of relying on cheap labour from abroad.
“We work closely with the Migration Advisory Committee to ensure our system delivers for the UK and works in the best interests of the economy.”
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “It’s encouraging to see that the unemployment rate in Scotland remains near record lows and there’s resilience in the labour market.
“Global issues are still causing significant economic challenges, however.
“The UK Government is investing £3.5bn to remove barriers to work and remains committed to halving inflation, reducing debt and growing the economy, not least through investing more than £2.2bn in Scotland through our ambitious levelling up agenda and City and Growth Deals.”
Stuart McIntyre, associate dean of the Strathclyde Business School, said: “The significant decline in the employment rate and the associated increase in economic inactivity in the latest data for Scotland suggest that the labour market is weakening in the face of a set of pressing economic challenges.
“It’s too soon to tell where this will go next, and we’ll have to await further data to understand how these wider economic pressures will play out in the labour market, but the outlook remains concerning.
“The latest UK-wide data show that a big driver of economic inactivity continues to be sickness preventing people from participating in the labour market – and the data we have for Scotland paint a similar picture.
“This underlines the importance of considering wider societal challenges alongside economic conditions, and in particular the importance of improving population health in supporting economic progress and wellbeing.”
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