Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for first quarter 2021

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 March 2021.

This document is part of 2 collections


Table 3: Total devolved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Headcount1,4

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Quarter Total Devolved Public Sector NHS Civil Service Police and Fire Services2 Further Education Colleges3 Other Public Bodies3 Local Government2 Public Corporations
Q1 1999 471,200 129,000 14,600 - 15,700 8,500 294,000 9,000
Q1 2015 505,500 160,700 17,500 28,400 13,800 14,100 249,000 22,000
Q1 2016 504,100 161,700 16,900 28,200 14,200 15,400 245,000 23,000
Q1 2017 503,000 162,600 17,000 27,800 14,000 15,500 243,000 23,000
Q1 2018 504,000 163,100 17,400 27,500 14,000 15,600 243,000 23,000
Q1 2019 500,000 164,100 18,700 27,900 14,200 16,100 251,000 8,000
Q1 2020 508,700 167,000 21,100 28,400 14,400 15,900 253,000 8,000
Q1 2021 524,600 177,700 22,200 28,200 13,400 15,700 254,000 13,000
Change on year to:
Q1 2021 15,840 10,690 1,100 -160 -1,070 -150 690 4,750
% change on year:
Q1 2021 3.1% 6.4% 5.2% -0.6% -7.4% -0.9% 0.3% 56.1%

Notes:

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, with the exception of local government and public corporation figures which are rounded to

the nearest thousand; change on year rounded to the nearest ten; percentages are based on unrounded figures. "-" denotes blank entries. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Police and Fire Reform: From Q2 2013 Police and Fire Services have been reclassified as central government rather than local government (as their predecessors were). All police staff are employed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) whether deployed with the SPA or with the Police Service of Scotland.

3. Information for further education colleges in Scotland is based on collected information from Q4 2010. The method used to create the back series is detailed in the background notes of this publication.

4. For further information on interpreting these series, see the series reclassification guide or background notes of the publication.

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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