Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 1st Quarter 2026
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 2026.
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 2026 was 50,200. This was 790 (1.6%) higher than in March 2025. This increase is mainly due to an increase in the Reserved Civil Service of 540 (2.0%).
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 2026
Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding
Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2026 from the Scottish Government. For Figure 7 data, see Table 4.
The increase over the year in the overall reserved public sector headcount was due to the following changes (changes are given from March 2025 to March 2026):
- employment in the Reserved Civil Service increased by 540 (2.0%) to 27,900
- employment in Other Public Sector increased by 250 (2.0%) to 12,600
Contact
For enquiries about this publication please contact:
Labour Market Statistics,
Office of the Chief Economic Adviser
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