Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2012

2. Public sector employment by devolved and reserved responsibility; Headcount (Table 3)

This section provides a summary of public sector employment in:

• Devolved public bodies which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament.
• Reserved public bodies for which the UK Government has ministerial responsibility.

Of the total public sector employment in Scotland, 485,100 (83.6%), covers people employed in devolved public bodies. This is a decrease of 4,500 (0.9%), down from 489,700 in Q4 2011. The decrease in employment in the devolved public sector has been driven by a decrease in total local government employment; down 5,100 (1.8%), employment in further education colleges; down 800 (5.0%) and the civil service; down 200 (0.9%) over the year. Employment in the NHS in Scotland has increased by 1,400 (0.9%) over the year and employment in Public Corporation saw an increase over the year; up 100 (1.6%).

There were 95,200 (16.4%) people employed in the reserved public sector in Scotland, a decrease of 5,700 (5.7%) from 101,000 in the last year. Employment in the reserved public sector financial institutions decreased by 2,700 (8.7%) in the last year and the reserved civil service decreased by 1,500 (5.0%).

Chart 3 below shows how the decrease of 10,300 seen for the overall public sector in Scotland is split between the devolved and reserved public sector.

Chart 3: Annual change (from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012) in public sector employment by devolved and reserved responsibility, Headcount