The finance industry continues to be the number one employer in Scotland, as well as across the entire United Kingdom. Surprisingly, Scotland is the 6th largest centre for investment management within the European theatre, it ranks 15th in the world.

Tourism continues to be one of the big three employers in Scotland. Mostly focused around the areas of the Highlands, Edinburgh and Glasgow, it provides a huge amount of jobs for the relatively unskilled work force, arguably this is its major value, it is capable of employing people with a bare minimum of education, and is seen by economists as under pining the economy, by providing jobs for the masses.

In the early 1970s, both oil and gas were discovered beneath the North Sea. Since this time, both of these industries and the ancillary support industries which server them, have formed a major source of jobs in Scotland. Additionally, renewable energy is also making roads into the employment figures, as efforts are made to find a replacement for the dwindling oil and gas resources.

A relatively new industry to break into large scale employment count, are the creative industries, covering a broad range of commerce as computer games development, music production, design and publishing. Scotland contains the most companies covering the creative industries than any other part of the UK; statistics would seem to indicate that this industry alone is going to grow exponentially in coming years, providing even more employment opportunities for the Scottish work force.