Listen
Public Sector Employment in Scotland: Q4 2007
19/03/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published statistics on Public Sector Employment in Scotland.
The publication provides statistics up to Quarter 4 of 2007 and covers all of the public sector as defined by UK National Accounts. This release provides a complete quarterly series from Quarter 1 1999 onwards. The quarterly data in this publication are not seasonally adjusted and therefore comparisons between years should only be made for the same quarter.
The main findings from Quarter 4 2007 are:-
- In quarter 4 (Q4) 2007, there were 578,300 people employed in the public sector which is an increase of 45,400 (8.5 per cent) since 1999 but a decrease of 4,300 (0.7 per cent) since 2006.
- The public sector currently accounts for 22.8 per cent of employment in Scotland which has decreased from 23.1 per cent both in Q4 1999 and Q4 2006.
- Total full-time equivalent employment in Local Government (excluding Police, Fire and related services) was 229,400 in Q4 2007. This figure comprises: 58,000 teachers; 36,300 other education staff; 43,500 social work staff and 91,600 other staff.
- Permanent full-time equivalent employment in the core Scottish Government departments is up by 11.0 per cent since 1999 but is down by 0.7 per cent since last year.
- The transfer of staff providing central services to the Scottish police forces to the new Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) has meant that a large number of staff who were previously employed by police boards are now classified as being employed by an NDPB. Over the year there has been a reduction of 3.9 per cent in police and related staff which will be caused mainly by the movement of staff to the SPSA.
- The total number of full-time equivalent staff working in NDPBs and Public Corporations was 38,900 in Q4 2007. This is a decrease of 0.2 per cent since Q4 1999 but an increase of 2.7 per cent since Q4 2006.
This publication is also the official release of Scottish Local Government employment statistics. These were previously published by the Scottish Government in the Joint Staffing Watch Survey.