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


2. Public Sector Employment by Devolved and Reserved Responsibility; Headcount

(see Tables 2, 3 and 4)

The devolved public sector headcount was 3.1% higher and the reserved public sector was 1.8% higher as at March 2021 compared with March 2020. Public Corporations saw the largest percentage increase (56.1%) in the Devolved public sector, while Further Education Colleges had the largest decrease (-7.4%). In the Reserved public sector, Other Public Sector and Reserved Civil Service both increased by 2.2% compared to March 2020.

The devolved public sector covers those bodies which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament while the reserved public sector in Scotland covers those bodies for which the UK Government has ministerial responsibility.

Figure 2: Make-up of the Scottish Public Sector as at March 2021, Headcount [6]
Figure 2 infographic of headcount in the devolved and reserved Public Sector with annual change Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland, Quarter 1 2021

Changes in the devolved and reserved public sector are explored in more detail in sections 3 and 4 respectively.

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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