Scotland's jobless total falls below the UK average with 15,000 dip in last quarter

Unemployment in Scotland has fallen by 15,000, taking the jobless rate below the UK average.

Official figures show the number of people out of work across the UK dropped by 45,000 from December to February, a third of which was recorded north of the border.

Scotland's unemployment total now stands at 123,000, according to the Office for National Statistics, which is down 47,000 over the last year.

The percentage of the workforce not in employment fell to 4.5%, a drop of 0.5% percentage points over the quarter and 1.6 percentage points over the year.

As a result, Scotland's unemployment rate was lower than the 4.7% recorded across the UK as a whole.

However the figures also show the number of Scots in work fell 8,000 over the period December to February, with the total down to 2,596,000.

Scotland's employment rate was recorded as being 73.4%, which is below the UK average of 74.6%.

Economic activity - which measures the number of people who are in work combined with those actively seeking a job - fell 24,000 over the quarter and by 60,000 over the year to stand at 2,719,000.

The data also recorded a small fall in the number of Scots who are out of work and claiming jobseeker's allowance, with the total down by 100 from February to March to stand at 47,600.

This total is, however, 10,400 lower than in March 2016.