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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2024

Published
20 March 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 December 2024.

Part of

Supporting documents

Key points

Summary - based on headcount data:

  • in December 2024, there were 597,300 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 22.5% of total employment[1]
  • in December 2024, employment in the public sector was 7,500 (-1.2%) less than in December 2023, mainly due to the reclassification of an organisation from the public to the private sector
  • when major reclassifications are excluded, the public sector increased by around 2,000 (0.3%) between December 2023 and December 2024[2]
  • of the total 597,300 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, 548,500 (91.8%) were employed in the devolved public sector in December 2024. This was 760 (0.1%) more than in December 2023
  • between December 2023 and December 2024, employment in the devolved public sector increased by:
    • 1,730 (0.9%) in the NHS
    • 630 (2.3%) in the Devolved Civil Service 
    • 460 (2.0%) in Other Public Bodies
    • 440 (5.4%) in Public Corporations
  • while employment in the devolved public sector decreased by:
    • 2,350 (-0.9%) in Local Government
    • 150 (-1.2%) in Further Education Colleges
  • and was unchanged for Police and Fire Services employment
  • in December 2024, there were 48,800 people employed in the Reserved Public Sector in Scotland. This was 8,260 (-14.5%) less than in December 2023. The Reserved Public Sector accounts for 8.2% of total public sector employment in Scotland
  • between December 2023 and December 2024, employment within the Reserved Public Sector decreased in Other Public Sector[3] by 9,630 (-45.0%)[4] and by 240 (-2.3%) in the Armed Forces. Employment increased in the Reserved Civil Service by 1,610 (6.3%)
 

[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) to 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 individual organisation employment figures are not disclosed.  

[4] 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. 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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