About public sector employment statistics
Contextual information and guidance on the Scottish Government's public sector employment statistics.
Local Government Employment
This section provides a summary of local government employment for Scotland and by Local Authority.
Based on Headcount employment
Total employment in Local Government (including Scottish Local Authorities, Valuation Joint Boards, and Regional Transport Partnerships) increased by 10 (0.0%) over the year to 262,000 in March 2024.
Quarterly time series of local government employment is available in our web tables publication in our main collection.
Changes to Police and Fire Service Classification
In April 2013, single services for Police and Fire were introduced and these services were reclassified from local to central government.
This reclassification has resulted in approximately 29,000 staff (headcount) moving to the central government category from local government. Also, from Q2 2013 onwards the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), previously known as the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) is included within the Police and Fire Services category rather than in Other Public Bodies category.
Related Local Government staffing information
Social Services
For further information on the official source for social work staffing, published by the Scottish Social services Council, please see http://www.sssc.uk.com
Teachers
Official Statistics for teacher numbers are included in the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication, produced by the Scottish Government, see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubTeacherCensus
Relevant web tables
The complete time series for each quarter from Q1 1999 are available at the public sector employment statistics web tables.
- Table 7: Local government employment by staffing group; Scotland, Headcount, Q1 1999 to present
- Table 8: Local government employment by staffing group and Local Authority; Scotland, Headcount, Q1 2000 to present
- Table 9: Local government employment by local authority and gender; Scotland, Headcount, Q1 2011 to present
- Table 14: Local government employment by staffing group and Local Authority; Scotland, Full-time equivalent, Q1 1999 to present
- Table 15: Local government employment by local authority; Scotland, Headcount, Full-time equivalent, Q1 2000 to present
- Table 16: Local government employment by local authority and gender; Scotland, Headcount, Full-time equivalent, Q1 2011 to present
Contact
If you have any enquiries relating to Labour Market Statistics then please contact us at:
Email: LMStats@gov.scot
Telephone: 0131 244 6773
Fax: 0300 244 1060
Post:
Labour Market Statistics
OCEAES: Economic Strategy and Policy
Scottish Government
5th Floor
5 Atlantic Quay
150 Broomielaw
Glasgow
G2 8LU
We welcome any comments on both the format and content of the website, including any problems you may encounter.
You may also contact the Statistician Group Enquiries for general information.
There is a problem
Thanks for your feedback