Scottish cities
Employment rates for selected Scottish cities and Scotland, 2004 - 2023
Employment rates in Scotland's four largest cities have fluctuated over the last two decades. The employment rate in Glasgow has risen from a low point in 2012, when the rate was 58%, to 71% in 2023. Rates in Glasgow and Dundee remained lower than in Aberdeen and Edinburgh for most of the time period shown, although rates have been dropping in Aberdeen, meaning that only Edinburgh had a higher employment rate (82%) than the Scottish average, of 75%, in 2023.
Percentage in full-time employment aged 16-64, selected Scottish cities and Scotland, 2023
More than nine-in-ten (91%) working-age men in employment were working full-time in Glasgow, and 64% of women in work were working full time in 2023. Both of these were slightly higher than the Scottish averages. Men were more likely to be in full-time employment in all of the cities shown, with Glasgow having the highest rate of full-time employment for men. Dundee had the highest proportion of women in full-time employment, and the smallest gender gap – with 81% of men and 68% of women who worked being in full-time employment.
Job density: the number of jobs per working-age resident and is used as indicator of labour demand. A job density greater than one indicates that there is more than one job per person for the working-age population. In 2021, job density in Glasgow was 1.03, which was higher than the Scottish average. Over the last two decades, all Scottish cities have consistently had higher job density levels than Scotland as a whole.
Employment by gender for selected Scottish cities and Scotland, 2023
Nationally and in both Glasgow and Aberdeen, male employment rates were higher than female employment rates in 2023. In Glasgow, 72% of adult males and 70% of adult females were in employment in 2023. The Scottish average was higher for both, with 77% of men and 72% of women in employment.
Dundee had the lowest rates, and Edinburgh the highest, for both genders. Each city had a gender gap, with higher employment rates for men than women, but this gap was lowest in Glasgow.
Migrant workers as percentage of total in employment aged 16-64 in selected Scottish cities and Scotland 2023
There are more migrant workers (people in employment born outside the UK) as a proportion of the workforce in each of the selected Scottish cities than in Scotland as a whole (15%). In 2023, 18% of people in employment in Glasgow were migrant workers. The figure was even higher in Aberdeen (36%) and in Edinburgh (31%).
Notes
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) definition of employment is anyone (aged 16 or over) who does at least one hour’s paid work in the week prior to their LFS interview, or has a job that they are temporarily away from (e.g. on holiday). Also included are people who do unpaid work in a family business and people on government supported employment training schemes, in line with ILO definitions.
The headline employment rate is the proportion of the working-age population who are in employment. The working-age population comprises men aged 16-64 and women aged 16-59 and therefore takes account of the school-leaving age but does not align completely with the state pension age which has risen in recent years.
The full-time/part-time split is based on respondent self-classification. Respondents are asked whether they work full-time or part-time in their main job.
The measure of migrant workers used is defined as: people in employment who were not born in the UK, expressed as a precentage of all people in employment in an area.