Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 1st Quarter 2022

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 2022.


Summary

Key points (based on headcount data) include:

  • In March 2022, there were 593,900 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 22.1% of total employment[1].
  • In March 2022, employment in the public sector was 13,950 (2.4%) more than in March 2021.
  • When major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased between March 2021 and March 2022 by around 14,000 (2.5%)[2].
  • Of the total 593,900 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 538,700 (90.7%) were employed in the devolved public sector in March 2022, which is 14,150 (2.7%) more than in March 2021.
  • Between March 2021 and March 2022, employment in the devolved public sector increased in Local Government by 8,160 (3.2%), in the NHS by 4,010 (2.3%), in the devolved Civil Service by 3,100 (13.9%), and in Further Education Colleges by 20 (0.1%). Employment in the devolved public sector has decreased in Police and Fire Related Services by -490 (-1.7%), Other Public Bodies by -400 (-2.5%) and in Public Corporations by -270 (-2.0%).
  • In March 2022, there were 55,200 people employed in the Reserved Public Sector in Scotland, 200 (-0.4%) less than in March 2021. The Reserved Public Sector accounts for 9.3% of total public sector employment.
  • Between March 2021 and March 2022, employment within the Reserved Public Sector decreased in the reserved Civil Service by -260 (-1.1%), increased in Other Public Sector[3] by 60 (0.3%) and was unchanged for employment in the Armed Forces[4].

16-24 year old employment in the devolved public sector[5]

  • In Q1 2022, there were 25,690 young people aged 16-24 in employment in the devolved public sector in Scotland, accounting for 4.8% of total employment in this sector. This is higher than the proportion of young people in employment in the devolved public sector in Q1 2021 which was 4.6%.
  • The sector which employs the largest number of young people aged 16-24 is Local Government. In Q1 2022, there were 12,940 employees aged 16-24 working in this sector, accounting for half (50.4%) of all young people working in the devolved public sector in Scotland.
  • Since 2021, the largest increases in the number of young people aged 16-24 years were in: Local Government (up 1,260) and Scottish Government Agencies (up 130); the largest decreases were in: Police and Fire Services (down 140) and Public Corporations (down 50).
  • The sectors where young people aged 16-24 years made up the highest proportion of the overall workforce were: Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal (7.9%, up 1.6 percentage points since 2021) and Scottish Government Agencies (5.5%, up 0.6 percentage points since 2021).

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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