Public sector employment, UK: December 2023

• Total public sector employment increased in December 2023 compared with the previous quarter and the previous year; the December 2023 level is the highest since March 2012.

• There were an estimated 5.93 million employees in the public sector in December 2023, which is 32,000 (0.5%) more than in September 2023 and 138,000 (2.4%) more than in December 2022.

• Employment in central government was an estimated 3.74 million in December 2023, up 33,000 (0.9%) compared with September 2023 and up 134,000 (3.7%) compared with December 2022; the main contributors to this increase were the NHS, the Civil Service, and local authority schools becoming academies.

• The NHS employed an estimated 2.01 million people in December 2023, an increase of 23,000 (1.2%) compared with September 2023 and an increase of 89,000 (4.6%) compared with December 2022.

• Employment in local government was an estimated 2.00 million in December 2023, little changed on the previous quarter; it was 1,000 (0.1%) less than in September 2023 and 3,000 (0.2%) more than in December 2022 with an increase in employment in the police contributing to the increase from a year ago.

• There were 535,000 employees in the Civil Service in December 2023, up 6,000 (1.1%) compared with September 2023 and up 20,000 (3.9%) compared with December 2022.

Labour Force Survey reweighting and revisions to total and private sector employment estimates

Estimates of total employment and private sector employment derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) have been revised in this release following the reintroduction of reweighted LFS estimates. These LFS estimates are official statistics in development. The seasonally adjusted UK series have been revised from September 2011 onwards, while the non-seasonally adjusted UK and regional series have been revised from September 2022 onwards.

The new reweighted LFS estimates incorporate our latest estimates of the size and composition of the UK population, improving the representativeness of our LFS estimates. Given time constraints, we have only been able to reweight LFS data from July to September 2022 onwards. Therefore, this reweighting exercise creates a discontinuity between the June 2022 and September 2022 non-seasonally adjusted UK and regional series where there will be a step change in LFS estimates. However, we have modelled the seasonally adjusted UK levels of employment back to June to August 2011, to ensure that headline levels of total and private sector employment can be assessed without a discontinuity.

For further information, please see our Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators article.

An issue has been detected in the weighting of the Labour Force Survey for Northern Ireland for the November 2023 to January 2024 quarter only. While only Northern Ireland data are affected, as a consequence we are not able to publish any regional private sector estimates for December 2023 as part of this release. Publication of the public sector data is not affected. We intend to publish full regional data as part of the next scheduled PSE release.

Reclassification of further education institutions in England

On 29 November 2022, we announced the reclassification of further education corporations, sixth form college corporations, and designated institutions in England from the non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) sector to the central government sector. Our Economic statistics sector classification – classification update and forward work plan: November 2022 article has more information on this classification decision.

This reclassification will be reflected in the public sector employment statistics in due course.

Coronavirus

For more information on how labour market data sources were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

View our Comparison of labour market data sources and the main differences article.

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 our 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 our 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 our Public sector employment QMI.