Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 3rd Quarter 2021

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 2021.


Table 3: Total devolved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Headcoun

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Quarter Total Devolved Public Sector NHS Civil Service Police and Fire Services2 Further Education Colleges3 Other Public Bodies3 Local Government2 Public Corporations
Q3 1999 r 471,600 129,700 14,600 - 15,700 8,400 294,000 9,000
Q3 2015 r 502,800 160,900 18,000 28,200 13,800 14,200 245,000 22,000
Q3 2016 r 501,000 161,800 16,800 28,100 14,000 15,500 242,000 23,000
Q3 2017 r 501,700 162,700 17,200 27,700 13,500 15,500 242,000 23,000
Q3 2018 r 488,300 162,900 17,800 27,600 13,800 16,100 242,000 8,000
Q3 2019 r 502,900 164,800 20,300 28,100 13,900 16,000 251,000 9,000
Q3 2020 515,600 170,600 21,400 28,300 13,500 15,700 252,000 14,000
Q3 2021 529,800 179,300 23,500 28,200 13,200 15,300 257,000 13,000
Change on year to: Q3 2021 14,230 8,730 2,060 -50 -290 -380 4,670 -520
% change on year: Q3 2021 2.8% 5.1% 9.6% -0.2% -2.2% -2.4% 1.8% -3.8%

r = minor reclassification and revisions to data

Notes:

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, with the exception of local government and public corporation figures which are rounded to

the nearest thousand; change on year rounded to the nearest ten; percentages are based on unrounded figures. "-" denotes blank entries. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Police and Fire Reform: From Q2 2013 Police and Fire Services have been reclassified as central government rather than local government (as their predecessors were). All police staff are employed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) whether deployed with the SPA or with the Police Service of Scotland.

3. Information for further education colleges in Scotland is based on collected information from Q4 2010. The method used to create the back series is detailed in the background notes of this publication.

4. 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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