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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 2nd Quarter 2021

Published
14 September 2021
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Economy, Public sector, Work and skills
ISBN
9781802013566

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 June 2021.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Summary

Key points (based on headcount data) include:

  • In June 2021, there were 583,100 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 22.2% of total employment[1].
  • In June 2021, employment in the public sector was 11,050 (1.9%) more than in June 2020.
  • When major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased between June 2020 and June 2021 by around 11,000 (2.0%)[2].
  • Of the total 583,100 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 527,700 (90.5%) were employed in the devolved public sector in June 2021, 10,060 (1.9%) more than in June 2020.
  • Between June 2020 and June 2021, employment in the devolved public sector increased in the NHS by 6,460 (3.8%), in the Civil Service by 1,310 (6.2%) and in Local Government by 3,750 (1.5%). Employment in the devolved public sector decreased in Further Education Colleges by -420 (-3.1%), Police and Fire Related Services by -20 (-0.1%), Other Public Bodies by -430 (-2.7%) and in Public Corporations by -580 (-4.3%).
  • In June 2021, 55,400 (9.5%) people in the public sector were employed in the reserved public sector in Scotland, 990 (1.8%) more than in June 2020.
  • Between June 2020 and June 2021, employment within the reserved public sector increased in the Civil Service by 800 (3.3%) and in Armed Forces by 300 (3.1%). Employment decreased in Other Public Sector by -110 (-0.5%).

About this publication

Major Reclassifications

An outline of major reclassifications which have taken place in the Scottish public sector since 2013 are outlined here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/about-public-sector-employment-statistics/pages/classifications/

A separate public sector series excluding the effects of these major reclassifications has been included in this publication to show the impact of the reclassifications on the number of people employed in the public sector.

More information is available on the Public Sector Employment Web Section.

National Accounts Classifications

An outline of National Accounts classifications which have taken place in the Scottish public sector since 2015 are outlined here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/about-public-sector-employment-statistics/pages/classifications/

Public Sector Employment Web section

The Public Sector Employment Web section provides additional information to this National Statistics publication:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-employment-statistics-web-tables/

It contains detailed information including:

  • Local government employment by local authority for the current quarter. A time series of total local government employment from Q1 1999 and by gender from Q1 2011.
  • Detailed tables showing a full time series of data - all quarters back to Q1 1999 – are also available to download.
  • Background notes outlining the methodology used to compile this series.

UK Comparisons

Public Sector Employment for Government Office Regions and Nations of the UK can be found in the Office for National Statistics Publication.

Comparisons to UK data should be made using non-seasonally adjusted UK data.

See the regional tables at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pse/public-sector-employment/index.html.

Background Notes

Statistics prior to Q1 2008 are estimates. These have been calculated using the total UK reserved public sector employment figure and applying to Scotland on a pro-rata basis as regional level data has only been collected from Q1 2008 onwards.

Background notes about the information contained in our PSE series are available at the following web section: https://www.gov.scot/publications/about-public-sector-employment-statistics/pages/background-notes/

Devolved and Reserved Civil Service Tables

Tables and commentary on the devolved and reserved civil service are not included in this summary. However, the full time series of data for the devolved and reserved civil service (including June 2021 data), including for Scottish Governmnet, Agencies, Crown Office, Procurator Fiscal and Non-Ministerial Departments are updated and published today in our related web tables publication section (Tables 5 and 6 for headcount figures and tables 12 and 13 for full-time equivalent figures): https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-employment-statistics-web-tables/

It is our intentions to review this change to our dissemination in December 2021.

Next Publication: December 2021

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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