The number of adults in Scotland who have never worked rose by almost 20% last year to just under 125,000, a new report has revealed.
The research also found that in all but three of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, the employment rate in 2013 was lower than at the start of the recession in 2008.
This reflects the “continuing challenging economic circumstances”, according to the report, which was published by Scotland’s chief statistician.
Last year there were 124,800 people in Scotland over the age of 16 who were not in full-time education and who had never had a job, up by 19.4% on 2012.
Across Scotland the employment rate was 71% last year, up slightly from 70.6% in 2012 but still lower than 2008, when it stood at 73.5%.
The report said the Dundee City Council area had experienced “the largest decrease in employment rate across Scotland’s local authorities” over the last year with this dropping 3.9 percentage point to 61.4%
Scotland has also experienced a larger increase in the youth unemployment rate since 2008, with this up by seven percentage points north of the border compared to a rise of 5.1 percentage points across the UK over the period.
Labour MSP Jenny Marra said that while more young people were left to “languish on the dole”, Angela Constance was promoted from being youth employment minister to the Cabinet secretary for training, youth and women’s employment.
Ms Marra said: “Ironically, while more of our young people languish on the dole, the minister in charge of this terrible performance has been given a promotion by her boss.”
Ms Constance said the figures showed that “employment prospects are improving across much of Scotland”.
She added more recent data from the Office for National Statistics showed a “positive picture is being sustained into this year, with employment levels now 13,000 above their pre-recession peak in 2008”.