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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 2nd Quarter 2026

Published
15 September 2026
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 June 2026.

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 June 2026 was 50,100. This was 580 (1.2%) higher than in June 2025. This increase is mainly due to an increase in the Reserved Civil Service of 430 (1.5%).

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 June 2026

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

Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 2 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 June 2025 to June 2026):

  • employment in the Reserved Civil Service increased by 430 (1.5%) to 27,900
  • employment in Other Public Sector increased by 280 (2.2%) to 12,700
  • employment in the Armed Forces decreased by 120 (-1.2%) to 9,600

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

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