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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2025

Published
19 March 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 December 2025.

Part of

Supporting documents

Devolved Public Sector Employment in Scotland; Headcount

The devolved public sector includes:

  • Devolved Civil Service
  • Local Government, covering Scottish Local Authorities, Police and Fire Services (up to Q1 2013), Valuation Joint Boards and Regional Transport Partnerships
  • Police and Fire Services (Q2 2013 onwards)
  • NHS in Scotland
  • Further Education Colleges
  • Devolved Public Corporations
  • Other Devolved Public Bodies (which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies)

Employment in the devolved public sector was 551,500 in December 2025. This is 2,500 (0.5%) higher than the level in December 2024 (549,000).  This increase is largely due to an increase in NHS employment of 2,180 (1.2%).

Figure 5: Local Government and NHS employ the largest number of people in the devolved public sector

Breakdown of devolved public sector employment (Headcount) in Scotland as at December 2025

Figure 5. bar chart of devolved Public Sector Employment showing relative size of sectors within the public sector

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 4 2025 from the Scottish Government. For Figure 5 data see Table 3.

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

The increase over the year in the devolved public sector headcount was due to the following changes (changes are given from December 2024 to December 2025):

  • employment in NHS increased by 2,180 (1.2%) to 190,300[1]
  • employment in Devolved Civil Service increased by 490 (1.7%) to 29,000
  • employment in Police and Fire Related Services increased by 170 (0.6%) to 27,500
  • employment in Other Public Bodies increased by 230 (1.0%) to 23,400
  • employment in Public Corporations increased by 410 (4.8%) to 9,000

while:

  • employment in Local Government decreased by 490 (-0.2%) to 261,000
  • employment in Further Education Colleges decreased by 480 (-3.9%) to 11,700

Figure 6: Public Corporations had the largest percentage increase over the year across the devolved public sector

Change in devolved public sector employment (Headcount) in Scotland from December 2024 to December 2025

Figure 6. bar chart showing annual percentage change for Devolved Public Sector bodies

Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 4 2025 from the Scottish Government. For Figure 6 data see Table 3.

 

[1] NHS employment statistics for the number of staff directly employed by NHS Scotland (headcount) were published by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) on 3 March 2026, with data relating to 31 December 2025 in their NHS Scotland official workforce statistics publication

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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