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.


2. Public Sector Employment by Devolved and Reserved Responsibility; Headcount

(see Tables 2, 3 and 4)

The devolved public sector headcount was 2.7% higher and the reserved public sector was 3.1% lower as at December 2020 compared with December 2019. Public Corporations saw the largest percentage increase (59.6%) in the Devolved public sector, while Further Education Colleges had the largest decrease (-6.0%). In the Reserved public sector, Other Public Sector had the largest decrease (-9.3%) and the Armed Forces had the largest increase (1.3%) compared to December 2019.

The devolved public sector covers those bodies which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament while the reserved public sector in Scotland covers those bodies for which the UK Government has ministerial responsibility.

Figure 2: Make-up of the Scottish Public Sector as at December 2020, Headcount [3]
Figure 2 infographic of headcount in the devolved and reserved Public Sector with annual change

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 4 2020

Changes in the devolved and reserved public sector are explored in more detail in sections 3 and 4 respectively.

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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