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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 1st Quarter 2025

Published
10 June 2025
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Economy, Public sector, Work and skills

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 March 2025.

Part of

Supporting documents

Reserved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount

The reserved public sector employment includes:

  • Reserved Civil Service
  • Armed Forces
  • Other Public Sector (which covers, Non-Departmental Bodies, Public Corporations and Other Bodies)

The number of people employed in the reserved public sector in March 2025 was 48,700. This was 9,530 (-16.4%) lower than in March 2024. This decrease is mainly due to an organisation being reclassified from the public to the private sector[1].

Figure 7: Reserved Civil Service employs the largest number of people in the Reserved Public Sector

Breakdown of Reserved Public Sector employment (Headcount) in Scotland as at March 2025

Figure 7. bar chart of reserved Public Sector Employment showing relative size of sectors within the public sector

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2025.

The decrease over the year in the overall reserved public sector headcount was due to the following changes (changes are given from March 2024 to March 2025):

  • employment in Other Public Sector decreased by 9,900 (-46.0%) to 11,600
  • employment in the Reserved Civil Service increased by 370 (1.4%) to 27,100

The decrease in the Other Public Sector category is mainly due to the reclassification of an organisation from the public sector to the private sector.

[1] The NatWest Group plc (including Royal Bank of Scotland plc) was reclassified to the private sector with effect from 1 June 2024, contributing to the decrease in employment in Other Public Sector over the year. The ONS published a media statement and a blog to accompany this re-classification.

Contact

For enquiries about this publication please contact:

Labour Market Statistics,
Office of the Chief Economic Adviser
Telephone: 0131 244 6773,
E-mail: LMStats@gov.scot

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:

Office of the Chief Statistician
E-mail: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot

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