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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2023

Published
12 March 2024
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Economy, Public sector, Work and skills

Statistics based on administrative records and surveys of individual public sector bodies carried out by the Scottish Government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is a snapshot of employment as at December 2023.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Key points

Summary - based on headcount data:

  • in December 2023, there were 604,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 22.9% of total employment[1].
  • in December 2023, employment in the public sector was 10,520 (1.8%) more than in December 2022.
  • when major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased by around 10,000 (1.7%) between December 2022 and December 2023[2].
  • of the total 604,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 547,700 (90.6%) were employed in the devolved public sector in December 2023. This was 9,320 (1.7%) more than in December 2022.
  • between December 2022 and December 2023, employment in the devolved public sector increased by:
    • 6,000 (3.3%) in the NHS
    • 3,240 (1.2%) in Local Government
    • 380 (1.4%) in the Devolved Civil Service
    • 510 (2.4%) in Other Public Bodies
    • 410 (5.4%) in Public Corporations
  • while employment in the devolved public sector decreased by:
    • 920 (-7.0%) in Further Education Colleges
    • 300 (-1.1%) in Police and Fire Related Services
  • in December 2023, there were 57,100 people employed in the Reserved Public Sector in Scotland. This was 1,200 (2.1%) more than in December 2022. The Reserved Public Sector accounts for 9.4% of total public sector employment in Scotland.  
  • between December 2022 and December 2023, employment within the Reserved Public Sector increased in Other Public Sector[3] by 640 (3.1%), increased in the Reserved Civil Service by 760 (3.1%), and decreased in the Armed Forces by 200 (-1.9%).
 

[1] Estimates for total employment and private sector employment are based on the Labour Force Survey, ONS. ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for July to September 2022 onwards have been reweighted, causing a step change discontinuity. Therefore, the LFS reweighting exercise creates a break in the series between June 2022 and September 2022 for regional total employment and regional private sector employment LFS estimates are designated as official statistics in development.

[2] Further details on major reclassifications are provided on page 8 and on the About public sector employment statistics page of the Scottish Government website.

[3] Public corporations, public sector financial institutions and public bodies have been combined into ‘other public sector’ to ensure individual organisation employment figures are not disclosed.  

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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