Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 2nd Quarter 2022

3. Devolved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount

(see Table 3)

Employment in the devolved public sector was 539,600 in June 2022. This is 12,060 (2.3%) higher than in June 2021.

There was a large increase in devolved Civil Service by 5,030 (22.2%) when compared to June 2021. This increase is mainly due to the inclusion of additional staff at the National Records of Scotland (NRS) in relation to work around the 2022 Scottish Census^[7] and increases in staffing at Social Security Scotland and in Scottish Government Core Departments.

The devolved public sector includes:

• Devolved Civil Service
• Local Government, covering Scottish Local Authorities, Police and Fire Services (up to Q1 2013), Valuation Joint Boards and Regional Transport Partnerships
• Police and Fire Services (Q2 2013 onwards)
• NHS in Scotland
• Further Education Colleges
• Devolved Public Corporations
• Other Devolved Public Bodies (which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies).

Chart 3 shows the size of each group in the devolved public sector as at June 2022. Local Government and NHS employ the largest proportion of employees in the devolved public sector.

Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 2 2022

The increase over the year in the devolved public sector headcount was due to (changes are given from June 2021 to June 2022):

• employment in Scottish Local Government increasing by 5,240 (2.0%) to 262,000
• employment in the Devolved Civil Service increasing by 5,030 (22.2%) to 27,700^[8]
• employment in the NHS increasing by 1,820 (1.0%) to 179,800^[9]
• employment in Other Public Bodies increasing by 400 (2.6%) to 15,700
• employment in Public Corporations increasing by 280 (2.1%) to 13,000

while:

• employment in the Police and Fire Services decreased by 670 ( -2.4%) to 27,600
• employment in Further Education Colleges decreased by 50 (-0.4%) to 13,300