Unemployment in Scotland has fallen to a record low, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
Data showed that the unemployment rate for those aged 16 and over was 3.1% between May and July.
This was down on the period between April and June this year, when the unemployment rate was 3.2%, and is the lowest level since records began in 1992.
The employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 in Scotland was 75.2% between May and July, which was 0.3% down on the previous quarter.
This was below the UK-wide employment rate of 75.4% for that age group.
The wider UK unemployment rate has hit 3.6%, its lowest level since 1974, but the number of workers dropping out of the jobs market also jumped higher.
Most economists had been expecting the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.8%.
However, the figures showed that the so-called economic inactivity rate rose to 21.7% – its highest level for more than five years.
The ONS said those classed as economically inactive rose by 194,000 in the quarter to nine million, due mostly to rising numbers of long-term sick as well as students, which has led to a shrinking labour market.
Britain’s inactivity rate has also been pushed higher in the past few years as older workers have chosen to retire early throughout the pandemic.
Experts said this will cause further concern among policymakers at the Bank of England in their battle to rein in inflation, as shortages of workers in the market is driving up wage growth and firms are responding by hiking prices.
But there was some sign that worker demand may be easing, with a 34,000 drop in the number of vacancies to 1.27 million in the three months to August – the biggest quarterly fall for two years.
The figures also revealed that the employment rate eased back to 75.4% in the three months to July, with the number of employed rising by a far smaller-than-forecast 40,000 to 32.7 million.
The more timely figures for payrolled workers in the UK showed a rise of 71,000, or 0.2%, between July and August to 29.7 million, although these figures are often subject to big revisions.
Workers likewise saw their pay continue to fall behind high inflation, despite another steep hike in earnings as the cost-of-living crisis hit hard.
The ONS said regular pay, excluding bonuses, grew by 5.2% over the three months to July.
But, with Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation taken into account, real pay tumbled by 3.9% year-on-year, according to the ONS.
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