Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for first quarter 2021

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 2021.


Table 7: Total devolved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Full-time equivalent 1,4

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Quarter Total Devolved Public Sector NHS Civil Service Police and Fire Services2 Further Education Colleges3 Other Public Bodies Local Government2 Public Corporations
Q1 1999 384,100 106,000 14,100 - 11,500 7,800 235,000 9,000
Q1 2015 427,200 137,600 16,600 27,700 10,500 12,800 202,000 19,000
Q1 2016 426,300 138,500 16,000 27,500 10,500 13,900 200,000 20,000
Q1 2017 425,300 139,400 16,000 27,100 10,300 13,900 198,000 21,000
Q1 2018 427,300 139,900 16,400 26,800 10,500 14,100 199,000 21,000
Q1 2019 421,900 140,900 17,700 27,300 10,600 14,300 203,000 8,000
Q1 2020 429,800 143,400 20,000 27,700 10,600 14,200 206,000 8,000
Q1 2021 446,600 152,400 21,000 27,600 10,200 14,200 208,000 13,000
Change on year to:
Q1 2021 16,770 8,960 1,080 -170 -460 -30 2,620 4,780
% change on year:
Q1 2021 3.9% 6.2% 5.4% -0.6% -4.4% -0.2% 1.3% 59.4%

Notes:

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, with the exception of local government and public corporation figures which are rounded to the nearest thousand; change on year rounded to the nearest ten; percentages are based on unrounded figures. "-" denotes blank entries. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Police and Fire Reform: From Q2 2013 Police and Fire Services have been reclassified as central government rather than local government (as their predecessors were). All police staff are employed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) whether deployed with the SPA or with the Police Service of Scotland.

3. Information for further education colleges in Scotland is based on collected information from Q4 2010. The method used to create the back series is detailed in the background notes of this publication.

4. For further information on interpreting these series, see the series reclassification guide or background notes of the publication.

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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