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The latest economic statistics to March 2006 show that West Lothian is on par (or sometimes higher) with Scottish rates of people in-employment, economically active, and people who want to work but are not employed. More precisely, 80% of the population of West Lothian are economically active (versus 79% rate for Scotland) and 77% are in some form of employment (75% for Scotland).  Approximately 10,000 people in West Lothian fall into the category of people who are unemployed, including the economically inactive who wish to work (about half being males and half females). The ILO unemployment rate for West Lothian is 4.7% relative to 5.3% for Scotland. Furthermore, approximately 12% of the total population have no qualification in West Lothian (compared to 15% of Scotland's total population).  In terms of understanding the trends, there has been a positive movement in the in-employment and economically active rates for both West Lothian and Scotland (approximately on par with each other since 1999 data to current), but likely owing to a population and GDP growth rise during the same period. Similarly, the percentage of total economically inactive population also rose during the same period from 9,000 people to 10,000 people in West Lothian. 
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