Every £1 million of Scottish industry output now supports 13 construction jobs, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The figure has dropped from 22 jobs supported by every £1 million of output in 2004.

The latest official employment figures from the ONS reveals the industry employed 168,000 in the first quarter of 2015, a decline of 8,000 jobs compared to the number of people working in Scottish construction at the end of 2014.

In addition, separate ONS figures show Scottish industry output hit a new high of £12.5 billion over the year to March 2015.

Overall, the number of Scottish construction jobs supported per £1 million of industry output has fallen from 22 in 2004 to 15 in 2014, and now 13 during the 12 months to March 2015.

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Industry output continues to be driven by infrastructure and other public sector new work, which hit a combined record output of £4.3 billion.

However, the value of housing output in Scotland remains 28% below where it was in 2007 prior to the recession, while repair and maintenance output for the 12 months to March is 19% lower than four years ago.

Scottish Building Federation (SBF) Managing Director Vaughan Hart said: "Productivity is going to be a key challenge for construction and the wider economy in the months and years ahead. In that context, evidence of an increase in industry productivity is to be welcomed.

"That said, to be sustainable in the longer term, the industry’s recovery needs to be suitably balanced across all sectors and this is not currently the case.

"Investment in training, technology and modern construction methods will be crucial to rebuilding industry skills and capacity and ensuring a balanced and sustainable recovery for Scotland's building industry."

(LM)