Scottish Government Workforce Statistics March 2023

The latest quarterly Scottish Government Workforce Information statistics have been published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. These statistics cover the numbers of workers, staff sickness rates, and the diversity of staff up to the most recent quarter ending March 2023.

The statistics show that:

• At the end of March 2023 there were 8,802 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, an increase on last year’s figure of 8,496 (3.6%) at the end of March 2022. The percentage of directly employed staff in permanent (99%) and temporary (1%) categories was similar to last year (March 2022: 98%, 2%).

• There was an 18.3% decrease in the number (headcount) of contingent (non-directly employed) workers from the end of March 2022 (2,031) to the end of March 2023 (1,659), a decrease of 372 workers.

• The staff sickness level was 8.1 average working days lost (AWDL) per staff year in the 12 month period ending March 2023, compared with 7.3 AWDL for the 12 month period ending March 2022. This equates to a loss of 3.6% of working days in the 12 month period ending March 2023.

• Just over half (56.5%) of the workforce were female, compared to 43.5% male. The proportion of female staff is higher than the same period last year (56.1% March 2022).

• At the end of March 2023 the majority of staff were aged between 30 and 59, broken down as follows: 30-39 (27.4%), 40-49 (26.2%), 50-59 (23%) , 17% were aged 16-29, and 6.4% were aged 60 or over.

• The proportion of directly employed staff providing diversity information for religion and for those declaring as straight has decreased slightly since the same period last year.

• The proportion of directly employed staff providing diversity information for marital status and for ethnicity has remained the same since the same period last year.

• The proportion of directly employed staff providing diversity information for disability and for those declaring as ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual, plus’ has increased since the same period last year.

Background

The figures released today were produced in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

The full statistics:

The statistics contain quarterly data from March 2012 to March 2023 and present:

• full time equivalent numbers and headcounts in each directly employed staff category
• headcounts of contingent workers engaged in work for the Scottish Government
• sickness absence levels of directly employed staff, headcounts of directly employed staff by age, disability status, ethnicity, sex, marital/civil partnership status, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

The Scottish Government uses the data internally for monitoring the performance of its workforce. Other expected users of the data in this publication are likely to include the general public and media for information about the Scottish Government, and other government departments for comparative purposes.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff. More information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland.