Working age

In your article "Bank job cuts blamed as Scotland slips behind UK" (18 March), you claim that "in Scotland, the number of people who are economically inactive stood at 1,559,000, or 36.7 per cent of the working age population". Reference is made to the UK economic inactivity rate being "21.5 per cent of the working age population".

The figure you have quoted for Scotland is inaccurate. The figures you have used for Scotland are for the total population aged 16 and over, and include all those who are retired and therefore not seeking work.

The working age population – the figures you have used for the whole of the UK – captures those below the state pension age, which covers females aged 16-59 and males aged 16-64.

It is wrong to say 36.7 per cent of Scotland's working age population is economically inactive. The correct figure for Scotland's working age economic inactivity rate in the three month period to January 2010 is 20.6 per cent, while the number of working age inactive is 665,000.

This compares with a working age economic inactivity rate for the UK of 21.5 per cent for the same period.

Jim Mather

Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism