Scotland has seen a record rise in employment at the same time as the number of people out of work has continued to fall.

Employment increased by 54,000 over the period January to March, which the Scottish Government hailed as the largest quarterly rise since 1992, when the figures began.

Unemployment fell for the six month in a row, with the jobless total now at 199,000.

While the number of people out of work across the UK continued to rise, official figures showed that north of the border there was a drop of 7,000 in the unemployment total over the period January to March.

The number of Scots who are unemployed, which includes those who are out of work and not claiming benefit, is 21,000 less than the same time last year.

Figures showed that across the UK the jobless total increased by 15,000 between January and March to 2.52 million.

The Scottish unemployment rate continues to be below that of the UK as a whole, at 7.3% north of the border compared with 7.8%

The rise in employment means that there are about 2,517,000 people in work in Scotland.

However there was a small rise in the number of Scots who are out of work and claiming jobseeker's allowance. This was up by 100 from the March total to 136,800 for April.

First Minister Alex Salmond hailed the statistics, saying: "Today's figures show the largest rise in employment on record with an increase of 54,000 people in employment. Scotland also showed the largest quarterly rise in employment rate of all 12 UK countries and regions.

"Scotland is out-performing the UK with a higher employment rate and lower unemployment rate. And our youth employment rate is continuing to make encouraging progress with more young people in work and youth unemployment falling again."

With the January to March figures showing 67,000 16 to 24-year-olds are out of work, the Scottish youth unemployment rate is now 16.6%, lower than the rate for the UK as whole which stands at 20.3%.

While Mr Salmond said the SNP administration was "working hard to get people back into work and to create opportunities for our young people" he branded the UK Government's continued pursuit of austerity measures as being the "biggest risk to Scotland's economic recovery".

The First Minister called on Chancellor George Osborne to use his spending review in June to "change his plans, accept his mistakes and learn the lesson that the key to economic growth is investment not austerity".

While Scottish Secretary Michael Moore also welcomed the latest unemployment figures, he stressed the importance of the UK Government maintaining its economic strategy.

Mr Moore said: "The latest labour market figures are another welcome step in the right direction and it is good news that Scotland is doing well as part of UK. This shows that the measures we are taking on the economy are working.

"However, there is still a long way to go and unemployment remains a huge concern for families and individuals in Scotland. It is therefore important that we maintain our economic strategy, working together with all partners to ensure that unemployment continues to fall.

"I am confident that the measures introduced to Parliament as part of the Queen's Speech earlier this month such as supporting families with childcare costs, and taking 35,000 businesses in Scotland out of National Insurance contributions altogether, will continue to aid the economic recovery in Scotland."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called on the Scottish Government to work with the Westminster coalition to tackle unemployment.

If SNP ministers could "work hand in hand with the UK government, it could only ripen further opportunities" for helping more people back to work.

"With 199,000 still out of work, it is clear we must maximise the full potential of devolution," the Lib Dem MSP said.

He also branded the First Minister's comments as "silly nonsense" because he blames Westminster when unemployment rises but takes the credit when it falls.

"Claiming credit for almost 200,000 people without a job is the height of complacency," Mr Rennie said.

"With economic powers shared between Holyrood and Westminster, it means we must work better in partnership on programmes like the Youth Contract, apprenticeship schemes and Green Investment Bank. Boosting the economy is more important than Alex Salmond's obsession with independence."

Grahame Smith, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, said the figures are encouraging but stressed "it is essential that no one gets carried away".

He said: "While Scotland's performance over the quarter may be spectacularly good compared to the UK as a whole, it is much less so when performance over the past year is considered.

"This might be the sixth consecutive fall reported by ONS but unemployment in Scotland has fallen by only 5,000 over this period and actually increased by 2,000 on the figure reported last month."

The figures "tell us nothing about the nature of the new jobs being created or the extent of the decline in real wages in Scotland".

He said: "Very long-term unemployment has doubled over the past year. Employment and unemployment aren't close to attaining pre-2008 levels."

Lauren Paterson, senior policy executive with business lobbying group CBI Scotland, said news that unemployment has fallen and employment is rising is "very welcome indeed".

She said: "Despite the challenging economic times, the Scottish labour market is showing resilience with jobs being created and fewer people unemployed.

"The latter figure especially indicates that the private sector is gradually regaining the confidence to hire, and all parties must do their utmost to ensure that this trend continues."

Labour finance spokesman Ken Macintosh said the fall in unemployment is welcome but is "far from the whole story".

He said: "Yet again we are seeing huge annual rises in levels of long-term unemployment, a more than doubling of those claiming jobseeker's allowance for over two years and a 300% rise in young people claiming for more than two years.

"It is also very worrying that many of the jobs being created are part-time and temporary. The fall of 13,000 in full-time work over the past year and rise of 6,000 in temporary workers shows that people are underemployed and struggling to find permanent employment.

"This is a picture of stagnation in the labour market rather than progress and it demands a level of intervention from both governments that is simply not happening."