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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 3rd Quarter 2025

Published
16 December 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 September 2025.

Part of

Supporting documents

Key points

Summary - based on headcount data:

  • in September 2025, there were 598,400 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 22.2% of total employment[1]
  • in September 2025, employment in the public sector increased by 2,460 (0.4%) compared to September 2024
  • when major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased by around 2,000 (0.4%) between September 2024 and September 2025[2]
  • of the total 598,400 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 548,500 (91.7%) were employed in the devolved public sector in September 2025. This was an increase of 2,000 (0.4%) compared to September 2024
  • between September 2024 and September 2025, employment in the devolved public sector increased by:
    • 1,730 (0.9%) in the NHS
    • 500 (5.8%) in Public Corporations
    • 420 (1.5%) in the Devolved Civil Service 
    • 340 (1.3%) in Police and Fire Services
    • 170 (0.7%) in Other Public Bodies
  • while employment in the devolved public sector decreased by:
    • 730 (-0.3%) in Local Government
    • 430 (-3.6%) in Further Education Colleges
  • in September 2025, there were 49,900 people employed in the reserved public sector in Scotland. This was 460 (0.9%) more than in September 2024. The reserved public sector accounts for 8.3% of total public sector employment in Scotland
  • between September 2024 and September 2025, employment within the reserved public sector increased in the Reserved Civil Service by 720 (2.7%), and increased slightly in the Other Public Sector[3] by 10 (0.1%)
 

[1] Estimates for total employment and private sector employment are based on the Labour Force Survey, ONS. ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for January to March 2019 onwards were reweighted in December 2024, causing a step change discontinuity. Therefore, the LFS reweighting exercise creates a break in the series between December 2018 to February 2019 (Q4 2018) and January to March 2019 (Q1 2019) for regional total employment and regional private sector employment. LFS estimates are designated as official statistics in development.

[2] Further details on major reclassifications are provided on page 8 and on the About public sector employment statistics page of the Scottish Government website.

[3] Public corporations, public sector financial institutions and public bodies have been combined into ‘other public sector’ to ensure employment figures for individual organisations are not disclosed.  

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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