Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2019

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 December 2019.


Table 1: Number of people employed by public and private sector; Scotland, Headcount

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Total Employment6 Private Sector2 Public Sector Estimated Private Sector Estimated Public Sector
including major reclassifications3, 4 excluding major reclassifications3, 5
Level Level Level Percentage of total employment Level Percentage of total employment Level Percentage of total employment
Q4 1999 2,276,000 1,725,000 551,200 24.2% 1,743,000 76.6% 533,000 23.4%
Q4 2013 2,557,000 1,972,200 584,800 22.9% 2,023,000 79.1% 534,000 20.9%
Q4 2014 2,596,000 2,034,500 561,100 21.6% 2,063,000 79.5% 533,000 20.5%
Q4 2015 2,624,000 2,063,400 560,900 21.4% 2,092,000 79.7% 532,000 20.3%
Q4 2016 2,612,000 2,053,900 558,600 21.4% 2,082,000 79.7% 530,000 20.3%
Q4 2017 2,640,000 2,079,700 560,000 21.2% 2,107,000 79.8% 532,000 20.2%
Q4 2018 r 2,650,000 2,098,000 551,700 20.8% 2,110,000 79.6% 539,000 20.4%
Q4 2019 2,640,000 2,078,900 561,400 21.3% 2,094,000 79.3% 546,000 20.7%
Change on year to:
Q4 2019 -9,430 -19,170 9,730 0.4 p.p. -16,000 -0.3 p.p. 7,000 0.3 p.p.
% change on year:
Q4 2019 -0.4% -0.9% 1.8% -0.8% 1.2%

r - due to minor revisions to data

Notes:

p.p. - percentage points

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, unless otherwise stated. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Private sector is derived as the difference between the Labour Force Survey 'Total employment' workforce based estimate for the whole of Scotland (not seasonally adjusted) and the public sector estimate (derived from individual organisation statistical returns).

3. Major reclassifications include: Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Northern Rock plc, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, Lloyds Bank Asset Finance, Scottish Widows, Direct Line, Royal Mail Group plc, Post Office Ltd (until Q2 2006), Network Rail and Registered Social Landlords.

4. Private sector including major reclassifications includes the figures for the above organisations in the private sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.

5. Public sector excluding major reclassifications excludes the figures for the above organisations from the public sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.

6. Total employment figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Contact

Email: lmstats@gov.scot

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