Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2013

4. Reserved public sector employment in Scotland; headcount ( Table 5)

This section provides a summary of reserved public sector employment which includes:

• Reserved Civil Service (see section 5);
• Armed Forces;
• Reserved Public Corporations;
• Public Sector Financial Institutions;
• Other Reserved Public Bodies (which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies).

The number of people employed in the reserved public sector decreased by 14,300 (15.0%) to 80,600 in Q4 2013. This was predominantly as a result of the reclassification of both Royal Mail Plc. and Direct Line Group out of reserved public corporations and into private sector, which amounted to a reduction in employment of 12,400 over the year to Q4 2013. In addition the number of people employed in reserved public sector has been impacted by revisions to headcount in the public sector financial institutions (up 2,200 (7.5%)) ^[7] . Chart 5 shows the make-up of the reserved public sector as at Q4 2013.

Chart 5: Breakdown of reserved public sector employment by sector, headcount, Q4 2013

Employment levels in all categories of the reserved public sector, except for the banks and armed forces, have decreased over the year:

• Reserved Civil Service down by 1,100 (3.7%);
• Public Corporations down by 15,100 (76.0%);
• Armed Forces remained unchanged;
• Public Bodies down 300 (3.7%); while
• Financial Institutions saw an increase of 2,200 (7.5%).