Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for first quarter 2019

3. Devolved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount (see Table 4)

Employment in the devolved public sector was 4,460 (0.9%) lower, at 501,000 in March 2019 compared with 505,500 in March 2018.

The devolved public sector includes:

• Devolved Civil Service (see section 5),
• Local Government, covering Scottish Local Authorities, Police and Fire Services (up to Q1 2013), Valuation Joint Boards and Regional Transport Partnerships,
• Police and Fire Services (Q2 2013 onwards),
• NHS in Scotland,
• Further Education Colleges,
• Devolved Public Corporations,
• Other Devolved Public Bodies (which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies).

Chart 4 shows the size of each group in the devolved public sector as at March 2019.

Chart 4: Breakdown of Devolved Public Sector Employment by Category as at March 2019, Headcount

Local Government and NHS employ the the largest proportion of employees in the devolved public sector.

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2019

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

The decrease in the overall headcount in the devolved public sector was due to:

• Employment in Public Corporations falling by 14,800 (63.8%) to 8,000 in March 2019, mainly due to Registered Social Landlords being reclassified to the private sector in the last year;

while:

• Employment levels in Scottish Local Government rose by 7,200 (2.9%) to 252,000 in March 2019 (this was mainly due to Cordia services moving back under Glasgow City Council services);
• Employment in the Devolved Civil Service rose by 1,310 (7.5%) to 18,700 in March 2019;
• Employment in Other Public Bodies rose by 250 (1.6%) to 15,900 in March 2019;
• Employment levels in the NHS rose by 1,050 (0.6%) to 164,100 in March 2019^[8];
• Employment in Further Education Colleges rose by 130 (0.9%) to 14,100 in March 2019.
• The number of Police and Fire Service employees rose by 390 (1.4%) to 27,900 in March 2019.

Figure 3: Percentage Change (from March 2018 to March 2019) in the Devolved Public Sector, Headcount^[9]

Public Corporations had the largest decrease at 63.8%.

Devolved Civil Service had the largest increase at 7.5%