Less Women Unemployed In Scotland

At just 4%, Scotland has the lowest rate of female unemployment in Europe.

According to Eurostat, 71.3% of women in the country have a job, giving Scotland the second highest rate of female employment, with Sweden take the top spot.

Holyrood's been promoting a number of equality measures, like 50-50 boards and supporting flexible working patterns. Minister for Youth and Women’s Employment Annabelle Ewing said:

"We have recently seen record levels of female employment in Scotland and the gap between male and female employment is also near a record low.

"In addition, we are leading the way with our commitment to 50:50 boards, supporting flexible working patterns to accommodate working parents and carers and other innovative support programmes such as support for women in enterprise, promotion of careers for women in STEM subjects.

"Gender balance isn’t just the right thing to do, it makes smart business sense. We need however to remove the gender gap entirely, encourage more women into senior positions and to set out in businesses of their own, as well as helping those actively seeking a job into employment."