Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 1st Quarter 2023
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 2023
Table 1: Number of people employed by public and private sector; Scotland, Headcount
[1]
Not Seasonally Adjusted
| Quarter [7] | Total Employment [6] | Private Sector [2] | Public Sector | Estimated Private Sector including major reclassifications [3][4] | Estimated Public Sector excluding major reclassifications [3][5] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level | Level | Percentage of total employment | Level | Percentage of total employment | Level | Percentage of total employment | Level | Percentage of total employment | ||
| Q1 1999 | 2,228,000 | 1,682,900 | 75.5% | 545,500 | 24.5% | 1,701,000 | 76.3% | 527,000 | 23.7% | |
| Q1 2017 | r | 2,644,000 | 2,086,000 | 78.9% | 558,200 | 21.1% | 2,114,000 | 80.0% | 530,000 | 20.0% |
| Q1 2018 | r | 2,643,000 | 2,084,000 | 78.8% | 559,100 | 21.2% | 2,112,000 | 79.9% | 531,000 | 20.1% |
| Q1 2019 | r | 2,676,000 | 2,121,600 | 79.3% | 554,200 | 20.7% | 2,134,000 | 79.7% | 542,000 | 20.3% |
| Q1 2020 | r | 2,630,000 | 2,068,400 | 78.6% | 561,800 | 21.4% | 2,081,000 | 79.1% | 549,000 | 20.9% |
| Q1 2021 | r | 2,632,000 | 2,052,300 | 78.0% | 579,300 | 22.0% | 2,071,000 | 78.7% | 561,000 | 21.3% |
| Q1 2022 | r | 2,688,000 | 2,092,800 | 77.9% | 595,400 | 22.1% | 2,111,000 | 78.5% | 577,000 | 21.5% |
| Q1 2023 | 2,658,000 | 2,059,900 | 77.5% | 598,600 | 22.5% | 2,079,000 | 78.2% | 579,000 | 21.8% | |
| Change on year to Q1 2023 | -29,750 | -32,960 | -0.4 p.p. | 3,210 | 0.4 p.p. | -32,000 | -0.3 p.p. | 3,000 | 0.3 p.p. | |
| % change on year Q1 2023 | -1.1% | -1.6% | 0.5% | -1.5% | 0.5% | |||||
p.p. - percentage points, r - revision
1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, unless otherwise stated. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.
2. Private sector is derived as the difference between the Labour Force Survey 'Total employment' workforce based estimate for the whole of Scotland (not seasonally adjusted) and the public sector estimate (derived from individual organisation statistical returns).
3. Major reclassifications include: Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Northern Rock plc, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, Lloyds Bank Asset Finance, Scottish Widows, Direct Line, Royal Mail Group plc, Post Office Ltd (until Q2 2006), Network Rail, Registered Social Landlords and Train Operating Companies.
4. Private sector including major reclassifications includes the figures for the above organisations in the private sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.
5. Public sector excluding major reclassifications excludes the figures for the above organisations from the public sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.
6. Total employment figures are rounded to the nearest thousand and are taken from Labour Force Survey (LFS).
7. There have been minor revisions to this data since the Q1 data was published a year ago. These are mostly due to historic revisions in Local Government figures. The Scottish National Investment Bank and the 2023 World Cycling Championships Ltd have been added to the data within the last year, including a backseries. Q1 2022 is affected by a larger amendment made to include temporary census workers at NRS
Contact
Email: LMStats@gov.scot
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