A DIP in West Fife's labour market has caused an increase in unemployment figures.

The claimant count for August stands at 1,490 which is an 17% increase compared to four weeks ago.

Job officials believe this is due to an increase of claims from workers who will soon be ending their employment on the Queensferry Crossing and Roysth's aircraft carrier.

There are 340 18-24-year old's claiming job seekers allowance, another 17% increase compared to July's figures, but this is expected to drop as students return to study in the next few weeks.

Scotland's employment rate hit a record high in the three months to June.

The number of people in work in Scotland reached 2,650,000, or 75.2%, a rise of 1.1 percentage points over the quarter.

The jobless rate fell by 0.5% from the previous quarter to 3.9% and now stands below the UK figure of 4.4%.

Martin Nowakowsky, Customer Service Manager for East Fife, said: "Employment figures may have increased but they are still 54% better than when the recession hit, so that still makes for positive reading.

"Some projects in the labour market here are coming to an end such as the Queensferry Crossing and the aircraft carrier so as expected the claimant count from the workers has risen.

"However, workers from the carrier will be moved on to another project in due course.

"It is also still student season and we should see a drop in September and October, so there are reasons for optimism in the market."

Job opportunities in the area are still predominately coming from Amazon, Sky and Edinburgh Airport.