Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for third quarter 2020

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 September 2020.


Table 7: Total devolved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Full-time equivalent

  Total Devolved
Public Sector
NHS Civil Service Police and Fire Services2 Further Education Colleges3 Other Public Bodies Local Government2 Public Corporations
Q3 1999 386,500 107,000 14,100 - 11,500 7,900 237,000 9,000
Q3 2014 426,000 136,700 16,400 27,900 10,200 12,900 202,000 20,000
Q3 2015 426,100 137,700 17,100 27,500 10,500 13,000 201,000 20,000
Q3 2016 424,700 138,700 15,900 27,400 10,100 14,100 198,000 20,000
Q3 2017 426,400 139,500 16,200 27,000 10,200 14,200 199,000 21,000
Q3 2018 414,200 139,800 16,800 26,900 10,100 14,500 198,000 8,000
Q3 2019 426,400 141,400 19,200 27,500 10,200 14,300 206,000 8,000
Q3 2020 438,700 146,600 20,200 27,600 10,300 14,300 207,000 13,000
Change on year to:
Q3 2020 12,260 5,210 1,050 120 70 -70 890 4,980
% change on year:
Q3 2020 2.9% 3.7% 5.5% 0.4% 0.7% -0.5% 0.4% 61.6%

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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