Employment up and wages at record high in Scotland

Hello and welcome to our daily digest of business, financial and economic news from around Scotland.

1. More Scots are in work and average wages have reached a new high, official data has shown.

The unemployment rate was 4.2 per cent for the period May to July, a decline of 0.5 percentage points on the previous quarter.

The Office for National Statistics said employment was at 74.2 per cent, up 1.2 percentage points, while the inactivity rate dropped 0.8 points to 22.3 per cent.

Separate HM Revenue & Customs data found there were 2.46 million workers on payrolls in August, a rise of 0.1 per cent from a year ago.

Median monthly pay last month was £2,443, up 6 per cent since August last year