It is the second month in a row that Scotland has seen its jobless total rise while unemployment across the United Kingdom has been reducing.
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Wage growth lagged expectations, however, with average weekly earnings rising 3 percent, year on year, in the three months to September, below forecasts for a 3.2 percent increase by analysts polled by Reuters.
Data released last month showed that unemployment fell by 79,000 in the three months to August to 1.77 million, with the unemployment rate at 5.4 percent.
The number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance in Scotland was down 1,700 in the period September to October to 68,800 and down 20,200 on the same period a year ago.
There were 31.21 million people in work, 177,000 more than for the April-to-June quarter and 419,000 more than in the same period a year earlier.
Vicky Redwood, chief United Kingdom economist at Capital Economics, said: “The latest United Kingdom figures show a fairly solid labour market, but not one strong enough to warrant an interest rate rise soon”.
The British Pound lost 0.25% versus the US Dollar after today’s United Kingdom employment data, as the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, but wage growth slowed. Unemployment slipped to 5.3%, the lowest rate since mid-2008, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global recession.
In the same labour market statistics report, the ONS revealed that the number of European Union nationals working in the United Kingdom had increased by 324,000 in the past 12 months.
Welcoming the figures, employment minister Priti Patel said the employment rate was now at a record high of 73.7%, while the unemployment rate was approaching pre-recession levels.
“But the slowdown in the pace of the UK’s pay recovery may signal that the rebound enjoyed during much of 2015 has eased”.
“There’s now precious little slack in the labour market”.
“The further fall in youth unemployment is good news but it is still nearly three times the national average”.
Threadneedle Street is keeping a close eye on wage growth as it mulls its first rate hike since 2007, although Governor Mark Carney signalled last week that rates may not rise until the end of next year or even 2017.
“But we can not rest”.
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“While private sector wages have made up a few lost ground, public sector workers are increasingly falling behind”.
