Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2020

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 2020.


Table 2: Public sector employment by devolved and reserved sector; Scotland, Headcount and Full-time equivalent

Footnote 1

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Headcount Full-time equivalent
Total Public Sector Devolved Public Sector2 Reserved Public Sector3 Total Public Sector Devolved Public Sector2 Reserved Public Sector3
Q4 1999 551,200 474,500 76,700 460,300 387,200 73,100
Q4 2014 561,100 503,700 57,400 480,500 426,800 53,600
Q4 2015 560,900 503,400 57,600 479,700 425,800 53,900
Q4 2016 558,600 502,000 56,600 477,900 424,700 53,200
Q4 2017 558,500 502,800 55,700 479,400 427,100 52,400
Q4 2018 551,700 496,900 54,800 471,600 420,000 51,600
Q4 2019 r 561,300 505,000 56,300 480,100 427,200 53,000
Q4 2020 573,200 518,700 54,600 493,100 441,600 51,500
Change on year to:            
Q4 2020 11,970 13,690 -1,720 12,990 14,480 -1,490
% change on year:            
Q4 2020 2.1% 2.7% -3.1% 2.7% 3.4% -2.8%

r - due to minor revisions to data

Notes:

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are based on unrounded figures. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Devolved Public Sector consists of the following staff groups: Civil Service, Other Public Bodies, NHS, Further Education Colleges, Local Government and Public Corporations (as shown in Table 3).
3. Reserved Public Sector consists of the following staff groups: Civil Service, Public Bodies, Armed Forces, Public Corporations, Public Sector Financial Institutions (as shown in Table 5).

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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