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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 3rd Quarter 2023

Published
12 December 2023
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Economy, Public sector, Work and skills

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 2023

Supporting documents

Key points

Summary - based on headcount data:

  • in September 2023, there were 599,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland.
  • in September 2023, employment in the public sector was 7,860 (1.3%) more than in September 2022.
  • when major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased by around 7,000 (1.3%) between September 2022 and September 2023[1].
  • of the total 599,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 542,800 (90.5%) were employed in the devolved public sector in September 2023. This was 6,780 (1.3%) more than in September 2022.
  • between September 2022 and September 2023, employment in the devolved public sector increased by:
    • 3,530 (2.0%) in the NHS
    • 2,340 (0.9%) in Local Government
    •    710 (2.6%) in the Devolved Civil Service
    •    460 (2.1%) in Other Public Bodies
    •    450 (5.8%) in Public Corporations
    •    130 (0.5%) in Police and Fire Related Services
  • employment in the devolved public sector decreased by:
    • 840 (-6.5%) in Further Education Colleges
  • in September 2023, there were 57,000 people employed in the Reserved Public Sector in Scotland. This was 1,090 (1.9%) more than in September 2022. The Reserved Public Sector accounts for 9.5% of total public sector employment in Scotland.  
  • between September 2022 and September 2023, employment within the Reserved Public Sector increased in Other Public Sector[2] by 760 (3.7%), increased in the reserved Civil Service by 530 (2.1%), and decreased in the Armed Forces by 200 (-1.9%).

Note: Estimates of total employment from the ONS Labour Force Survey are not available for August-October 2023, therefore it is not possible to produce private sector employment estimates for September 2023 or the proportion of people employed in the public or private sectors.

 

[1] Further details on major reclassifications are provided on the About public sector employment statistics page of the Scottish Government website.

[2] Public corporations, public sector financial institutions and public bodies have been combined into ‘other public sector’ to ensure individual organisation employment figures are not disclosed.  

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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