Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2013

1. Total employment and public and private sector employment in Scotland; Headcount ( Table 1)

Figure 1 provides a summary of total employment in Scotland and the breakdown of public and private sector employment. The public sector is defined according to the UK National Accounts Classifications Guide ^[1] .

Figure 1: Public and Private Sector Employment, Scotland, Q4 2013

Chart 1: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Headcount, Q1 1999 - Q4 2013, non-seasonally adjusted

As shown in Chart 1; the number of people employed in the public sector in Scotland is now at a similar level to that seen in 2002. The large increase in 2008 shows the inclusion of financial institutions (banks) in the public sector, however, if we exclude these banks it can be seen that the level is now lower to that seen in 1999.

Chart 2: Annual change in employment by main sector, Headcount

Impact of excluding Public Sector Financial Institutions

If we exclude public sector financial institutions ^[2] from the series, there would be 535,400 people employed in the public sector in Q4 2013, representing 20.9% of total employment in Scotland.

Excluding these banking groups, public sector employment would have decreased by 15,900 (2.9%) over the year to Q4 2013 and would be 15,700 (2.9%) lower than in Q4 1999.

The public sector financial institutions are all included in the reserved public sector in Scotland; their impact in this sector is covered in section 4 of this publication.