Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2025
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.
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 December 2025 was 50,100. This was 600 (1.2%) higher than in December 2024. This increase is mainly due to an increase in the Reserved Civil Service of 710 (2.6%).
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 December 2025
Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 4 2025 from the Scottish Government. For Figure 7 data see Table 4.
Note: Totals may not equal the sum of the individual parts due to rounding
The increase over the year in the overall reserved public sector headcount was due to the following changes (changes are given from December 2024 to December 2025):
- employment in the Reserved Civil Service increased by 710 (2.6%) to 27,700
- employment in Other Public Sector increased by 160 (1.3%) 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