Public Sector Employment in Scotland - Statistics for 1st Quarter 2015

Summary

Some of the key points (based on headcount) are as follows:

• There were 2,615,000 people employed in Scotland in Q1 2015, an increase of 58,400 (+2.3%) over the year.
• In Q1 2015, there were 546,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, a decrease of 1,000 (-0.2%) since Q1 2014. This level is 1,300 (+0.2%) higher than in 1999, when the series began. In Q1 2015, public sector employment accounted for 20.9% of total employment, down from 21.4% in the previous year.
• In Q1 2015, there were an estimated 2,067,900 people employed in the private sector in Scotland, an increase of 59,400 (+3.0%) over the year. Private sector employment in Scotland accounts for 79.1% of total employment.
• Of the total 546,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 89.6% are accounted for by employment in the devolved public sector. Employment in the devolved public sector increased slightly (up 2,300 (+0.5%)) over the year to 489,700 in Q1 2015.
• Over the year, employment in the devolved public sector decreased in Police and Fire Related Services by 300 (-1.0%) and Public Corporations by 600 (-7.7%). Employment in the devolved public sector increased in NHS by 2,000 (+1.2%), Civil Service by 500 (+2.8%), Local Government by 300 (+0.1%), Other Public Bodies by 200 (+1.2%) and Further Education Colleges by 300 (+2.0%).
• 10.4% of the total public sector employment relates to employment in the reserved public sector in Scotland. The reserved sector saw a decrease of 3,300 (-5.5%) in headcount between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015.
• Employment within the reserved public sector decreased across nearly all categories over the year to Q1 2015. Employment decreased in Civil Service by 1,300 (-5.0%) and Armed Forces by 1,100 (-10.8%) whereas Public Bodies remained unchanged at 9,400.
• If Banks and other reclassifications were not included in the public sector, the estimated total public sector employment would have decreased by 300 (-0.1%) rather than 1,000 (-0.2%) over the year.

Youth Employment in the devolved public sector

• In Q1 2015, there were 22,630 young people aged 16-24 in employment in the devolved public sector, accounting for 4.6% of total employment in this sector. This is an increase of 1,060 (+0.2 percentage points) over the year.
• The increases seen are spread broadly across the devolved public sector including: Scottish Government Agencies, up 0.6 percentage points from 6.8% in Q1 2014 to 7.4% in Q1 2015 and Police and Fire Services, up 0.6 percentage points from 3.4% in Q1 2014 to 4.0% in Q1 2015. The reduction of 240 young people employed in Public Corporations over the year (down 2.9 percentage points) is attributable in the main to young people no longer employed as part of Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Major Reclassifications^[1]

On 17^th December 2013, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that from 1^st September 2014, Network Rail will be reclassified as a Central Government body in the public sector and will apply from April 2004.

On 30th April 2014, ONS announced the reclassification of Lloyds Banking Group plc. (and subsidiaries) as a former Public Corporation into the private sector (with effect from March 2014). Subsidiaries of Lloyds Banking Group plc. include: Scottish Widows Bank plc. TSB Bank plc., Lloyds Bank plc., Black Horse Limited, AMC Bank Limited and Bank of Scotland plc. This reclassification has resulted in approximately 19,400 staff (headcount) moving into the private sector. More information on this can be found in Classification of Lloyds Banking Group and Subsidiaries

ONS announced the reclassification of both Royal Mail Group plc. (effective from October 2013) and Direct Line Group (effective from September 2013), as former Public Corporations. This resulted in approximately 12,400 staff (headcount) moving into the private sector.

A separate public sector series excluding the effects of major reclassifications has been included in this publication to show the impact of the reclassifications on the number of people employed in the public sector.

More information is available on the Public Sector Employment Web Section.

Public Sector Employment Web section

The Public Sector Employment Web section provides additional information to this National Statistics publication http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment

It contains detailed information including:

• Employment levels for public bodies in Scotland for 16-24 year olds (Q1 2013, Q1 2014 and Q1 2015). Information by age is considered Official Statistics rather than National Statistics due to it being a new data series.
• Local government employment by local authority for the current quarter. A time series of total local government employment from Q1 1999 and by gender from Q1 2011.
• Detailed tables showing a full time series of data - all quarters back to Q1 1999 - are also available to download.
• Background notes outlining the methodology used to compile this series.

UK Comparisons

Public Sector Employment for Government Office Regions and Nations of the UK can be found in the Office for National Statistics Publication.

Comparisons to UK data should be made using non-seasonally adjusted UK data.

See the regional tables at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pse/public-sector-employment/index.html.

Background Notes

Statistics prior to Q1 2008 are estimates. These have been calculated using the total UK reserved public sector employment figure and applying to Scotland on a pro-rata basis as regional level data has only been collected from Q1 2008 onwards.

Background notes about the information contained in our PSE series are available at the following web section: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment/SourcesDef

Next Publication: 16^th September 2015