Unemployment in Scotland is still at a record low, according to the latest figures.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed the unemployment rate for those aged 16 and over was 3.2% between February and April this year – the same rate as the previous quarter.

Across the UK, the unemployment rate was 3.8%.

In Scotland, the employment rate rose by one percentage point in the previous quarter, to 75.5%.

Separate early estimates from the HMRC showed there were 2.42 million payrolled employees in Scotland in May. That is 37,000 more than in February 2020, before the pandemic.

However, the ONS data showed that regular pay across the UK fell during the last quarter at the fastest rate in more than a decade, when taking into account rising prices.

Between February and April, pay excluding bonuses was down 2.2% from a year earlier when adjusted for inflation.

Prof Mairi Spowage of Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander economic research institute said the latest figures “continued the story of a really, really tight labour market”.

She added: “This what what we would call full employment. Basically, everyone who is wanting a job can find one, but what we are hearing from employers is that they are just having more and more difficulty finding staff.”