The employment rate in Scotland has reached its highest rate for four years as new figures showed the jobless total has fallen again.
Official figures revealed the number of people who were unemployed fell by 6,000 over the period February to April to stand at 194,000.
It is the seventh consecutive month there has been a drop in the jobless total, with the number of people who are unemployed – including those who are not eligible for benefits – now 25,000 lower than the same period last year.
The Scottish unemployment rate continues to be the lower than that for the UK as a whole, at 7.1% compared to 7.8%
Meanwhile, the employment rate is above the UK average and stands at 72.2% in Scotland compared to 71.5%.
The Scottish Government said the employment rate was the highest it had been since 2009 and that Scotland now had the highest employment rate and the lowest unemployment rate of the UK’s four nations.
A total of 2,530,000 Scots are now in work, with employment having increased by 47,000 over the quarter from February to April.
The number of Scots who are out of work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance fell by 700 from April to stand at 135,600 in May – with this total 6,800 less than it was 12 months ago.