Scotland is showing early signs of shaking off the worst effects of the recession after encouraging figures on jobs, retail sales and economic output, business and political leaders have claimed.

The cautiously upbeat assessment of the nation's prospects came after unemployment fell yesterday for the first time in almost a year.

Retail sales are showing yearly growth, boosted by last month's warm weather. Overall gross domestic product (GDP) is increasing by 0.5% year on year.

Jeremy Peat, director of The David Hume Institute economic think-tank and former chief economist of Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "I certainly think that the downhill trajectory has ceased for the time being. I think it is quite encouraging. There are still a lot of risks out there but this is significantly better than one would have expected six months ago."

The jobless total fell by 12,000 but there are still 219,000 unemployed, including those who are out of work and not eligible for benefits.

However, the numbers in work increased by 17,000 and the unemployment rate north of the Border now stands at 8.1%, which is lower than the UK average of 8.3%.

CBI Scotland policy executive Lauren Paterson said the news that the numbers out of work was falling and employment was rising was "very welcome".

She said: "The latter figure especially indicates that the private sector is gradually regaining the confidence to hire, and all parties must do their utmost to ensure that this trend continues. Unfortunately, these statistics also show that youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, and helping young people to find jobs must remain a joint priority for businesses and government."

Liz Cameron, chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said the news that employment had increased was "particularly good news and underlines the strength of Scotland's private sector businesses and our capacity to create jobs and growth".

Alex Salmond said the Scottish Government's efforts were "paying dividends" but urged the UK Government to release cash for infrastructure projects to support jobs. The First Minister said: "This is the biggest fall in unemployment in Scotland for over a year and Scotland now has lower unemployment, higher employment, and lower economic inactivity than the UK as a whole.

"Scotland's GDP performance in the fourth quarter of 2011 was also better than the 0.3% decline in the UK and the eurozone, with a significant contribution from Scotland's energy sector, but the 0.1% decline underlines that there is absolutely no room for complacency.

"What is needed now to propel the recovery forward is an injection of increased capital spending, which is why I am writing again to David Cameron with the list of £300 million of shovel-ready projects across Scotland to boost growth and support thousands of jobs."

However, a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses warned of a "false dawn".

He said: "Nothing has changed today that we didn't know about yesterday. Our membership surveys have shown that our members across Scotland and the UK are feeling more positive than a year ago, but that is not saying much.

"We still need to see action to get the economy moving and boost consumer and business confidence."

Across the UK, there are 2.65 million people out of work, a drop of 35,000 in the quarter to February.

However, the number of people out of work for more than a year jumped by 26,000 to 883,000, the worst total since 1996, and unemployment among women increased by 8000 to 1.14 mil-lion, the highest figure for almost 25 years. In Scotland, the figure is 106,000, a rise of 5000.

It is set against a backdrop of an all- time high in the EU jobless rate. Average unemployment reached 10.2% in February, and now threatens the EU's target of achieving a 75% employment figure by 2020.

Labour leader Johann Lamont said: "It is clear that we have a particular problem with female employment that the SNP Government has failed to address, and this is a direct result of their decision to target local government for cuts and the disproportionate impact this has on female workers."

Despite the drop in the headline numbers, Scotland's jobless total is still 4000 more than a year ago.