Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2012

The statistics in this release are based on administrative records and surveys of individual public sector bodies carried out by the Scottish Government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The publication includes information on public sector employment in Scotland with distinctions made for employment in devolved bodies and reserved bodies (located in Scotland).


3. Devolved public sector employment in Scotland; Headcount (Table 4)

This section provides a summary of devolved public sector employment which includes:

- Devolved Civil Service
(section 5 has more detailed breakdowns for the devolved civil service)

- Local Government
(which covers Scottish Local Authorities, Police Forces, Fire Boards, Valuation
Joint Boards, Bridge Transport Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships)

- NHS in Scotland

- Further Education Colleges

- Devolved Public Corporations

- Other Devolved Public Bodies
(which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies)

The number of people employed in the devolved public sector decreased by 4,500 (0.9%), falling from 489,700 to 485,100, since Q4 2011. Chart 4 shows the make-up of the devolved civil service as at Q4 2012.

Chart 4: Breakdown of devolved public sector employment by category, Headcount, Q4 2012

Chart 4: Breakdown of devolved public sector employment by category, Headcount, Q4 2012

! Important Caveat

When interpreting changes over time in devolved public sector employment it should be noted that there has been movement of staff across categories which makes it difficult to monitor changes over time.

Over the year employment decreased in: local government, further education colleges and civil service; and increased in: NHS and public corporations; other public bodies remained unchanged.

The number of local government staff (including Scottish Local Authorities, Police Forces, Fire Boards, Valuation Joint Boards, and Regional Transport Partnerships) decreased by 5,100 (1.8%) down from 282,800 (in Q4 2011) to 277,700 (in Q4 2012).

Employment in further Education colleges decreased by 800 (5.0%) from 15,000 to 14,200 in Q4 2012.

Civil service employment decreased by 200 (0.9%).

Employment also increased in the following two categories over the year:

  • Employment in the NHS increased by 1,400 (0.9%) over the year, from 154,400 (in Q4 2011) to 155,800 (in Q4 2012). A detailed breakdown on this information by staffing group was published by ISD on the 26th February 2013. http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/
  • Public corporations, up 100 (1.6%)

Employment in other public bodies remained unchanged at 14,600.

Contact

Email: Chris Newson

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