Public sector employment, UK: December 2021

• Total public sector employment increased in December 2021 compared with the previous quarter and the previous year; the increase from a year ago is largely because of the ongoing response of the NHS and the Civil Service to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

• There were an estimated 5.72 million employees in the public sector for December 2021, which was 24,000 (0.4%) more than for September 2021 and 127,000 (2.3%) more than for December 2020.

• Employment in central government was an estimated 3.52 million for December 2021, a rise of 24,000 (0.7%) compared with September 2021 and 133,000 (3.9%) compared with December 2020; the main contributors to this increase were the NHS, the Civil Service and local authority schools becoming academies.

• The NHS employed an estimated 1.86 million people in December 2021, an increase of 14,000 (0.8%) compared with September 2021 and an increase of 70,000 (3.9%) compared with December 2020; the ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic has driven the increase on the previous year.

• There were 508,000 employees in the Civil Service for December 2021, up 3,000 (0.6%) compared with September 2021 and 35,000 (7.4%) more than for December 2020; the increase on the previous year was partly driven by the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

• Employment in local government was an estimated 2.00 million unchanged on the previous quarter and little changed on the previous year; up 2,000 (0.1%) compared with December 2020.

• Private sector employment was at an estimated 26.77 million for December 2021, a decrease of 37,000 (0.1%) compared with September 2021 but an increase of 253,000 (1.0%) compared with December 2020.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

View more information about how labour market sources have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

View a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences.

Impact on production of public sector employment estimates

The collection of the data contained in this release was unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic. Comments provided by survey respondents suggested the estimates were partly affected by coronavirus planning and response.

Sources

The main source of public sector employment (PSE) data is the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey, which is supplemented by data from external sources. Further information can be found in the PSE Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Full-time equivalents

While this bulletin focuses on headcount estimates of PSE, full-time equivalent estimates (based on the number of hours worked divided by the standard full-time hours) are available in the accompanying PSE datasets.

Seasonal adjustment

All PSE data time series in this release, with the exception of the regional series, are seasonally adjusted to aid interpretation. Relationships that hold in the unadjusted series do not necessarily hold for the seasonally adjusted series. For example, total PSE equals the total of all public sector industry estimates before seasonal adjustment, but this is not necessarily true after seasonal adjustment.

Reclassifications between the public and private sectors

Comparisons of public and private sector employment over time are complicated by several major reclassifications. This is where bodies employing large numbers of people have moved between the public and private sectors. We produce estimates of public and private sector employment excluding the effects of major reclassifications to help you understand underlying trends in employment. We publish these alongside estimates of total public and private sector employment in Tables 5, 6a and 7a of the PSE datasets.

Quality

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the Public sector employment QMI.