Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 4th 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 December 2021.

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Table 1: Number of people employed by public and private sector; Scotland, Headcount

These tables include comparisons for Q4 in 1999 and 2015 to 2021 only. A complete time series, including all quarters back to Q1 1999 is provided in the excel spreadsheets published at the public sector employment web section https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-employment-statistics-web-tables/

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Quarter Total Employment Level [note 6] Private Sector Level [note 2] Private Sector Percentage of total employment [note 2] Public Sector Level Public Sector Percentage of total employment Estimated Private Sector (including major reclassifications) Level [note 3][note 4] Estimated Private Sector (including major reclassifications) Percentage of total employment [note 3][note 4] Estimated Public Sector (excluding major reclassifications) Level [note 3][note 5] Estimated Public Sector (excluding major reclassifications) Percentage of total employment [note 3][note 5]
Q4 1999 2,276,000 1,725,100 75.8% 551,100 24.2% 1,744,000 76.6% 533,000 23.4%
Q4 2015 2,624,000 2,063,500 78.6% 560,800 21.4% 2,092,000 79.7% 532,000 20.3%
Q4 2016 2,612,000 2,054,000 78.6% 558,500 21.4% 2,082,000 79.7% 530,000 20.3%
Q4 2017 2,640,000 2,081,200 78.8% 558,400 21.2% 2,109,000 79.9% 531,000 20.1%
Q4 2018 2,650,000 2,098,100 79.2% 551,600 20.8% 2,110,000 79.6% 539,000 20.4%
Q4 2019 2,640,000 2,079,100 78.7% 561,200 21.3% 2,094,000 79.3% 546,000 20.7%
Q4 2020 2,604,000 2,030,400 78.0% 573,300 22.0% 2,049,000 78.7% 555,000 21.3%
Q4 2021 2,647,000 2,057,500 77.7% 589,600 22.3% 2,076,000 78.4% 571,000 21.6%
Change on year to:
Q4 2021 43,480 27,150 -0.3 p.p. 16,330 0.3 p.p. 27,000 -0.3 p.p. 16,000 0.3 p.p.
% change on year:
Q4 2021 1.7% 1.3%   2.8%   1.3%   2.9%

Notes:

Important Note: Estimates for total employment and private sector employment are based on the Labour Force Survey, ONS. Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates from Jan-Mar 2020 onwards were reweighted in July 2021 to new populations derived using growth rates from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) to allow for different trends during the Covid-19 pandemic. These revisions were included in the PSE publication released on 14 September 2021. Q4 2020 LFS estimates in this table may differ from those previously published in the Q4 2020 PSE publication.

p.p. - percentage points

1. Employment figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, unless otherwise stated. Change on year rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not equal the sum of individual parts due to rounding.

2. Private sector is derived as the difference between the Labour Force Survey 'Total employment' workforce based estimate for the whole of Scotland (not seasonally adjusted) and the public sector estimate (derived from individual organisation statistical returns).

3. Major reclassifications include: Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Northern Rock plc, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, Lloyds Bank Asset Finance, Scottish Widows, Direct Line, Royal Mail Group plc, Post Office Ltd (until Q2 2006), Network Rail, Registered Social Landlords and Train Operating Companies.

4. Private sector including major reclassifications includes the figures for the above organisations in the private sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.

5. Public sector excluding major reclassifications excludes the figures for the above organisations from the public sector series when they were part of the public sector and are rounded to the nearest thousand.

6. Total employment figures are rounded to the nearest thousand and are taken from Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Contact

Email: LMStats@gov.scot

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