Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 1st Quarter 2024

Reserved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount

The reserved public sector employment includes:

• Reserved Civil Service
• Armed Forces
• Other Public Sector (which covers Public Sector Financial Institutions, Non-Departmental Bodies and Other Bodies)

The number of people employed in the reserved public sector in March 2024 was 57,400. This was 420 (0.7%) higher than in March 2023.

Figure 7: Reserved Civil Service employs the largest number of people in the Reserved Public Sector

Breakdown of Reserved Public Sector employment (Headcount) in Scotland as at March 2024

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2024.

Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding.

The increase over the year in the overall reserved public sector headcount was due to the following changes (changes are given from March 2023 to March 2024):

• employment in Reserved Civil Service increased by 170 (0.6%) to 25,600
• employment in Other Public Sector increased by 250 (1.2%) to 21,500

Figure 8: ‘Other Public Sector’ had the largest percentage increase over the year in the Reserved public sector

Change in Reserved Public Sector employment (Headcount) in Scotland from March 2023 to March 2024

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2024.

Note: Armed Forces data is released once per year, so the change over the year for Armed Forces is based on the same figure currently being used for both Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. The Armed Forces Q1 2024 figure will be updated in our September 2024 publication.