Promising news as jobs market barometer in positive territory for third month

The Scottish labour market improved in January, with more appointments and higher average salaries, according to the latest Bank of Scotland report on jobs.

It shows the number of candidates placed into jobs rose for the fourth successive month, while pay increased "modestly", despite a rise in people seeking work.

The bank's "labour market barometer" - an indicator designed to provide a single-figure snapshot of labour market conditions - reached 53.2 in January, up from 52.6 in December.

The barometer has now been above the no-change threshold of 50 for a third consecutive month, with the latest reading the highest since last April. However, it is still well below pre- recession levels, when it regularly stood above 60. The mixed picture was underlined by the fact that the number of candidates seeking work also increased during January.

Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, said: "Further improvement is needed before we can be sure that job growth in the private sector will offset future public-sector job cuts."

Regionally, Aberdeen saw the highest growth levels.

Official figures released last week showed that unemployment in Scotland fell by 13,000 in the last three months of 2010.

The drop to 216,000 out of work between October and December placed the Scottish unemployment rate at 8 per cent, just ahead of the UK average of 7.9 per cent.

Employment increased by 23,000 at the same time, bringing the number of those with jobs to more than 2.4 million.