Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for first quarter 2020

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 March 2020.


4. Reserved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount

(see Table 4)

The number of people employed in the reserved public sector in March 2020 was 53,300, 1,770 (3.2%) lower than in March 2019.

The reserved public sector employment includes:

  • Reserved Civil Service (see section 5);
  • Armed Forces;
  • Other Public Sector (which covers Public Sector Financial Institutions, Non-Departmental Bodies and Other Bodies).

Chart 5 shows the size of each group in the reserved public sector as at March 2020.

Chart 5: Breakdown of Reserved Public Sector Employment by Sector as at March 2020, Headcount
Chart 5: Breakdown of Reserved Public Sector Employment by Sector as at March 2020, Headcount

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2020
Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding.

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

  • Employment levels for Other Public Sector[5] falling by 800 (3.9%) from 20,400 in March 2019 to 19,600 in March 2020;
  • Employment levels for the Reserved Civil Service falling by 970 (3.9%) to 24,000;

while:

  • Employment levels for the Armed Forces were unchanged at 9,700.

Figure 4: Percentage Change (from March 2019 to March 2020) in the Reserved Public Sector, Headcount
Figure 4: Percentage Change (from March 2019 to March 2020) in the Reserved Public Sector, Headcount

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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