The number of young Scots out of work or education has risen by 3000 in the last year.

The total of 16 to 19 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEETS) in Scotland now stands at 23,000.

The Scottish Conservatives said the rise in NEETS was down to the SNP cutting "college places by more than 150,000".

The party's shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said: "These figures show a very worrying rise in the number of teenagers not in work, education or training.

"This follows a very deliberate decision by the SNP to cut the number of college places by more than 150,000.

"So at a time when young people badly need opportunities to broaden their horizons, one of the key ways of doing this has been removed.

"These statistics should focus minds within the Scottish Government.

"The UK Government has worked very hard to ensure economic recovery, and we can't have young people in Scotland missing out on that because the SNP doesn't value college education."

The report also shows that over half of Scots who are unemployed have been out of work for more than six months.

The Scottish Government highlighted other figures in the report such as youth employment rising.

A Government spokesperson said: "These figures actually show more young people finding work across most of Scotland, with the youth employment rate increasing by three percentage points last year. And the rate of young people not in education, employment or training is well down on the levels it reached in 2010.

"But we will continue to act to build on this progress and through our ongoing long term commitment to implement our youth employment strategy.

The spokesperson continued: "As part of our work to support young people, we are clear that colleges are vital to Scotland's success and the number of full-time students has grown as we have exceeded our commitment to maintain student places for the last three years.

"By placing more emphasis on full-time courses that lead to employment, colleges are improving the life chances for all students, generating a well-trained, highly-skilled workforce to deliver economic growth. Since 2007 we have invested over £550 million in college estates, in spite of cuts from Westminster and have protected their resource funding in the 2016-17 draft budget."