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

1. Total Employment and Public and Private Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount (see Table 1)

Figure 1 provides a summary of total employment in Scotland and the breakdown of public and private sector employment. The public sector is defined according to the UK National Accounts Classifications Guide^[1].

Figure 1: Public and Private Sector Employment, Scotland, Q1 2015

Chart 1: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Headcount, Q1 1999 - Q1 2015, non-seasonally adjusted

Chart 1 shows that the number of people employed in the public sector in Q1 2015 was slightly higher than that seen in 1999, when the series began. Excluding the effects of major reclassifications^[2], the number of people employed in the public sector gradually increased to a peak in Q1 2006 and then decreased to Q3 2014 before increasing slightly over the last two quarters.

Chart 2 shows the annual change in employment for the public and private sectors.

Chart 2: Annual Change in Employment by Main Sector, Headcount

Impact of Excluding Major Reclassifications from Public Sector

If the major reclassifications^[2] were to be excluded from the public sector series, there would be estimated to be 533,300 people employed in the public sector in Q1 2015. This would account for 20.4% of the total employment in Scotland.

Public Sector employment excluding the effects of the major reclassifications, would have decreased by 300 (-0.1%) over the year to Q1 2015 and increased by 6,200 (+1.2%) since Q1 1999.

The major reclassifications are all included in the reserved public sector in Scotland; their impact in this sector is covered in section 4 of the publication.