Scotland's labour market remained in good shape in April, according to figures that suggested the country was coping better than other parts of the UK with an influx of immigrants, which has been helping to keep the lid on wages.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in Scotland fell for the ninth month running in April, when underlying wages growth remained at modest levels across the UK.

Unemployment increased slightly on the ILO measure in Scotland in the three months to February, to 138,000, compared with 137,000 in the preceding quarter. However, the numbers out of work on the survey-based ILO measure were 3000 lower than in the same period last year.

The numbers in employment increased 35,000 in the latest quarter, to 2,515,000, up 51,000 in the year.

With the unemployment rate down on both measures compared with last year, the labour market appears to have been creating jobs fast enough to absorb a tide of migrants in Scotland, despite increases in interest rates.

Following a period in which growth in employment has helped Scotland enjoy a rare period of above-trend economic growth, the numbers will be welcomed by ministers.

By contrast, the ONS data suggests that in the UK as a whole the labour market may be past its best.

In March, claimant count unemployment in the UK fell for the sixth month running, by 9200, to stand at a 14-month low of 910,800.

However, ILO unemployment increased by 21,000, to 1,694,000, in the three months to February.

Including migrants who are not eligible to claim benefits, some 120,000 more people were unemployed compared with the same period last year. The unemployment rate has increased by 0.3 percentage points, to 5.5%, since then.

The numbers in employment fell by 47,000 to 29,980,000 in the three months to February.

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said annual employment growth in the UK had "slowed sharply" from 1% to 0.5% since the end of last year.

The UK figures indicate that jobs are not being created fast enough to absorb all those looking for work. The numbers have been swollen by migrants from the EU enlargement states and older women looking to earn money to supplement their pensions.

Meanwhile, manufacturing employment fell in the latest quarter by 54,000, to 2.97 million, the lowest total since records began in 1978.

This may help to explain why wages continued to grow at fairly modest levels in April.

Howard Archer, at Global Insight, noted that while headline average earnings growth "spiked up markedly" in February, to 5.1% from 4.7%, this was largely driven by higher bonus payments to City workers.

"More reassuringly, underlying earnings growth remained muted, thereby providing some rare recent good news on the inflation front for the Bank of England," he said.

With underlying annual average earnings growth limited to 3.6% in February, wage settlements have been running at well below the 4.5% level thought to be consistent with the Bank of England's 2% inflation target.

"So far at least, wages are proving to be the dog that hasn't bitten," Archer added.

By contrast, a slew of data on input prices has pointed to inflationary pressures that the Bank is expected to tackle by raising interest rates next month.

However, Archer warned that after retail price inflation hit a 16-year-high of 4.8% in March, there could be trouble ahead on the wages front.

In Scotland, the ILO unemployment rate remained stable in the latest quarter at 5.2%. That compared with 5.4% in the same period last year.

The claimant count unemployment rate held steady in March at 3%, down 0.3 percentage points on the same month in 2006.

In the UK, the claimant count rate was 2.9% in March, flat on the month and down 0.1 percentage points on the year.