The jobless total in Scotland fell by 3000 people between April and June, official figures reveal.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 115,000 people are out of work in the country compared to 118,000 in January to March.

This puts the unemployment rate at 4.2% - a 0.1% improvement on the previous quarter.

But it is 0.3% higher than the rate recorded in the same quarter in 2017 (3.9%), with 8000 more Scots out of work than this time last year.

The Scottish percentage also remains above the UK-wide average by 0.2%.

Unemployment across the whole UK fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million, the lowest for more than 40 years, to make the rate 4%.

England's jobless rate is also 4%, while Wales' figure of 4.3% is marginally worse than Scotland's.

The best-performing nation in the UK is Northern Ireland, where despite a substantial 0.7% rise on the previous quarter its jobless rate was 3.8% for April to June.

Around 12,000 more people in Scotland are categorised as in work according to the ONS figures, putting the number of employed Scots this quarter at 2.64 million.

The overall employment rate in Scotland is 75.2%, a half-point higher than in January to March, and now only 0.4% off the UK average.

The number of people in work in the UK increased by 42,000 to 32.39 million, the highest number since the metric was first being recorded in 1971, matching last quarter's rate of 75.6%.

The south-west of England enjoys the highest in-work rate in Britain, at 79.4%.

Average earnings for Britons increased by 2.4% in the year to June, however, this is down from 2.5% in the previous month.

Scotland's fair work minister Jamie Hepburn said: "These are welcome figures. Scotland's economy and jobs market remains strong despite the continued challenges facing our economy as a result of Brexit uncertainty."

He added: "On female and youth employment, we continue to outperform the UK with an employment rate of 71.6% for women, higher than the UK rate of 71%, and a youth employment rate of 56.2%, higher than the UK rate of 53.8%.

"We are investing a record £2.4bn in enterprise and skills, £4bn in infrastructure and delivering the most competitive package of rates relief in the UK, including the small business bonus, which to date has saved Scottish firms almost £1.5bn."