Scotland's job market is cooling, with all indicators suggesting that the economy is growing more slowly than it was 12 months ago.
Growth in pay, admitted last week by David Cameron to be a key economic issue, showed particular weakness, with salaries growing at their slowest rate for 14 months and temporary pay at its slowest for 21 months.
Overall the labour market saw its slowest rise in permanent appointments for 22 months and a downturn in temporary billings, sending the Bank of Scotland Labour Market Barometer down to 60.0, its lowest reading since September 2013.
But survey group Markit noted: "That said, remaining well above the critical 50.0 mark, the barometer still pointed to a marked improvement in Scotland's labour market conditions overall."
Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, commented: "This Report on Jobs suggests the Scottish economy continues to grow at the start of 2015 but at a slower rate than the end of last year."
Virtually all indicators however were also below those for January 2014.
Only Edinburgh and Dundee recorded growth in permanent appointments, the former at the faster rate, while Aberdeen saw no change and Glasgow a marginal decline.
Aberdeen registered improvements in both permanent and temporary staff availability, while the sharpest deteriorations on each front were recorded in Dundee and Edinburgh respectively.
Growth of permanent salaries was led by Edinburgh, while Dundee was ahead on temp pay rates.
The rate of growth in permanent staff demand was the joint lowest in the past 16 months, matching that seen last November, while the increase in temp staff demand was the weakest since May 2013.
Candidate availability continued to deteriorate rapidly, with the supply of candidates for permanent positions falling more quickly than those for temp roles.
IT and computing recorded the strongest increase in demand for permanent staff, for the fifth successive month, and the second strongest for temporary staff, who were most needed in the nursing/medical/care sector. There was an outright fall in executive and professional temp vacancies.
Markit said the barometer was well below its 2014 average of 63.9, but above its long-run series average of 54.7, "signalling a still-strong improvement in overall labour market health".
The equivalent barometer for the UK as a whole also eased at the start of the year, falling to its lowest level since November 2013. Nevertheless, at 61.1, it pointed to a more marked improvement in job market conditions than in Scotland for the second time in the past three months.
Meanwhile the CBI has today upgraded its UK economic growth forecast for 2015 against a backdrop of lower oil prices and inflation.
It now expects growth of 2.7per cent this year (up from 2.5per cent three months ago) and 2.6per cent in 2016.
Katja Gall, CBI deputy director-general, said: "While lower oil prices are keeping costs down for businesses and consumers, the North Sea oil companies are suffering, harming jobs and investment in the industry.
"Now is not the time for complacency, but falling unemployment coupled with improving wage growth and rock bottom inflation should mean that people see more money in their pockets.
"But businesses are looking on anxiously as insecurity continues to troll the eurozone and instability remains elsewhere."
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