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 2: Public sector employment by devolved and reserved sector; Scotland, Headcount and Full-time equivalent

[1]

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Quarter [4] Headcount Full-time Equivalent
Total Public Sector Devolved Public Sector [2] Reserved Public Sector [3] Total Public Sector Devolved Public Sector [2] Reserved Public Sector [3]
Q1 1999   545,500 471,000 74,400 455,200 384,000 71,200
Q1 2017 r 558,200 502,100 56,100 477,900 425,300 52,700
Q1 2018 r 559,100 503,100 56,000 479,800 427,200 52,600
Q1 2019 r 554,200 499,100 55,000 473,700 421,900 51,800
Q1 2020 r 561,800 508,000 53,900 480,500 429,700 50,700
Q1 2021 r 579,300 523,900 55,400 499,100 446,700 52,400
Q1 2022 r 595,400 539,300 56,100 513,500 460,300 53,200
Q1 2023   598,600 542,200 56,400 516,900 463,200 53,600
Change on year to Q1 2023 3,210 2,880 330 3,330 2,910 420
% change on year Q1 2023 0.5% 0.5% 0.6% 0.6% 0.6% 0.8%

r - revision

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are based on unrounded figures. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Devolved Public Sector consists of the following staff groups: Civil Service, Other Public Bodies, NHS, Further Education Colleges, Local Government and Public Corporations (as shown in Table 3).

3. Reserved Public Sector consists of the following staff groups: Civil Service, Armed Forces, Other Public Sector (as shown in Table 4)

4. There have been minor revisions to this data since the Q1 data was published a year ago. The revisions are mostly in the Devolved Public Sector. There have been 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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