Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for third quarter 2020

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 September 2020.


Table 4: Total reserved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Headcount

  Total Reserved
Public Sector
Civil Service Armed Forces Public Bodies2 Public Corporations2 Public Sector
Financial Institutions2
Other Public Sector2
Q3 1999 74,700 33,900 15,000 5,900 19,900 - 25,800
Q3 2014 58,000 25,700 9,800 9,600 * * 22,500
Q3 2015 57,200 25,600 9,800 * * * 21,800
Q3 2016 57,000 25,500 10,000 * * * 21,500
Q3 2017 56,300 25,700 9,800 * * * 20,800
Q3 2018 55,200 25,000 9,700 * * * 20,500
Q3 2019 57,000 24,600 9,700 * * * 22,800
Q3 2020 54,300 24,100 9,800 * * * 20,300
Change on year to:
Q3 2020 -2,720 -430 130 -2,430
% change on year:
Q3 2020 -4.8% -1.7% 1.3%       -10.7%

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are based on unrounded figures. "-" denotes blank entries and "*" denotes entries that have been suppressed for disclosure reasons. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.
2. Public corporations, public sector financial institutions and public bodies, have been combined into 'other public sector' to ensure individual organisation figures are not disclosed.
3. For further information on interpreting these series, see the series reclassification guide or background notes of the publication.

Contact

Email: lmstats@gov.scot

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