Regional employment patterns in Scotland: statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2018

Section 2: Types of work

2.1 Type of employment

In 2018, 1,911,900 people were in full-time employment and 718,800 people were in part-time employment.

Since 2008, the levels of part-time and full-time employment for women have increased. For men, levels of part-time employment have increased, however the full-time employment level for men is lower now than in 2008.

Part-time working accounts for a slightly larger share of employment compared with 2008, increasing from one quarter (24.8 per cent) in 2008 to 27.3 per cent in 2018. Full-time employment has decreased slightly from three quarters (75.2 per cent) of all employees in 2008 to 72.7 per cent in 2018.

Chart 8: Employment rate (16-64) by gender and full-time/part-time, 2018

Part-time employment accounts for 42.5 per cent of all women’s employment compared with 13.1 per cent of all men’s employment.

Part-time employment is also more common for those in employment aged 16-24 years (39.1 per cent), with the majority being students, and for those aged 65 years and above where 68.4 per cent of 65+ year olds were working part-time.

321,300 people in employment were self-employed in Scotland, close to the highest since the series began.

Chart 9: Proportion of people (16+) in employment who are self-employed by gender

Self-employment accounts for 12.2 per cent of all employment in Scotland in 2018. This remains below the UK where 15.0 per cent of those in employment are self-employed.

Women accounted for an increasing share of self-employment from 26.8 per cent in 2004 to 34.5 per cent in 2016. However, this has fallen to 32.0 per cent over the past two years. The number of women who are self-employed increased steadily from 66,200 in 2004 to 113,700 in 2016 and has decreased over the past two years to 102,900 in 2018.

The number of men in Scotland who are self-employed increased from 181,000 in 2004 to 218,400 in 2018, the highest level since the series began in 2004.

Chart 10: Employment (16+) by gender and work pattern, 2018

Note: a small number of respondents who were unable to report whether they were full-time or part-time have been excluded from chart 10.

2.2 Underemployment

What is underemployment? Underemployment refers to those who are in work but who would prefer to work more hours for the same rate of pay and provides a measure of underutilisation of labour. The APS only gathers information on hours based underemployment.

Figure 3: Underemployment for those in employment aged 16 years and over, 2018

In 2018, 193,500 employees were underemployed in Scotland, the lowest level and rate since 2008.

Underemployment was highest amongst women (7.8 per cent) compared with men (7.1 per cent).

Underemployment decreased from 8.0 per cent in 2017 to 7.4 per cent in 2018* and continues to be significantly lower than the peak rate of 10.0 per cent in 2012*. Men’s underemployment fell from it’s peak of 9.0 per cent in 2013 to 7.1 per cent in 2018* and women’s underemployment fell from it’s peak of 11.6 per cent in 2012 to 7.8 per cent in 2018*.

By age, underemployment is highest amongst employees aged 16-24 years and at 16.5 per cent is over double the national average. In the period since 2012, underemployment has decreased across all age bands*.

Underemployment rate (underemployment as a percentage of all employees) has consistently been highest amongst part-time men (23.2 per cent), followed by part-time women (13.7 per cent) and lowest amongst full-time women (3.5 per cent) and full-time men (4.7 per cent).

Chart 11: Underemployment Rate (16+) by age, 2004-2018

The largest decrease in underemployment over time, by gender and work pattern, was for part-time men over the past five years with 33.9 per cent reporting being underemployed in 2013, reducing to below a quarter (23.2 per cent) in 2018*.

Chart 12: Underemployment Rate (16+) by working pattern and gender, 2004-2018

There is regional variation in the underemployment rate (Data are not available for Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands or South Lanarkshire).

The highest rates in 2018 were in Na h-Eileanan Siar (13.5 per cent), North Ayrshire (13.2 per cent) and South Ayrshire (10.2 per cent).

The lowest rates were in East Dunbartonshire (5.1 per cent), East Renfrewshire (5.3 per cent) and North Lanarkshire (5.6 per cent).

In the last year, the rate of underemployment has decreased in 15 local authorities and increased in 13 local authorities.

The largest increases over the year were in Dundee City increasing by 3.2 percentage points to 8.7 per cent*; South Ayrshire increasing by 2.3 percentage points to 10.2 per cent and East Ayrshire increasing by 1.7 percentage points to 7.9 per cent.

The largest decreases were in East Renfrewshire down by 4.8 percentage points to 5.3 per cent*; Scottish Borders down by 4.7 percentage points to 8.6 per cent* and Clackmannanshire down by 4.3 percentage points to 7.9 per cent.

2.3 Sector

Public Sector Employment accounts for 25.5 per cent of all in employment while private sector is 74.5 per cent of all in employment.

The local authorities with the highest public sector employment representation, outside of the Islands, were West Dunbartonshire (33.4 per cent), East Ayrshire (32.8 per cent) and South Ayrshire (31.4 per cent).

Chart 13: Changes in public and private sector employment (16+) 2004-2018, Scotland

Note: Industry sector is self-reported on the Annual Population Survey and could be subject to some inaccuracy. The official source for estimating Public Sector Employment is the SG Quarterly Public Sector Employment Series: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment

In the last 10 years, there have been substantial movements in the number of people employed by sector with 42,100 more women in the Public admin, education and health sector and 5,400 less men (Note this is not the same as the Public Sector).

Otherwise, larger changes were more men and women employed in Banking, finance and insurance (men up 51,900 and women up 25,000); large decreases in Manufacturing (men down 35,200 and women down 17,800) and a large decrease in Construction for men (down 37,000).

Chart 14: Change in the number of people employed (16+) over the last 10 years by industry and gender, Scotland

2.4 Gender Segregation

Gender segregation remains a persistent issue across several broad industry sectors and occupational groups in Scotland.

Chart 15: Proportion of all in employment (16+) by sector and occupation and gender, 2018, Scotland

Although equality legislation has been in place for many years, gender segregation is still apparent in many industry sectors in Scotland.

Almost half of women in Scotland (47.4 per cent) work in the Public admin, education and health sector (Note this is not the same as the Public Sector).

Over two-fifths (44.5 per cent) of men work in sectors that show high levels of gender segregation: Construction (12.4 per cent), Transport and communication (11.0 per cent), Manufacturing (11.8 per cent), Energy and water (6.8 per cent) and Agriculture and Fishing (2.5 per cent).

Gender segregation across the various occupational groups show a similar picture to that seen across industry sectors with specific occupational groups showing high levels of segregation.

43.3 per cent of women in Scotland were employed in occupations that are gender segregated towards women: Administrative and secretarial (15.7 per cent), Personal service (17.0 per cent) and Sales and customer service occupations (10.6 per cent).

31.5 per cent of men in Scotland were employed in occupations that exhibit high levels of gender segregation towards men: Skilled trades (19.8 per cent) and Process, plant and machine operatives (11.8 per cent).

* Statistically significant