Scottish Government Workforce Statistics September 2021

14th December 2021

The latest quarterly Scottish Government Workforce Information statistics have been published today by Scotland's Chief Statistician. These statistics cover the numbers of workers, staff sickness rates and the diversity of staff up to the most recent quarter ending September 2021.

The statistics show that:

at the end of September 2021 there were 7,968 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, an increase on last year’s figure of 7,147 at the end of September 2020. The percentage of directly employed staff in permanent (98%) and temporary (2%) categories was similar to last year (September 2020: 97%, 3%)

there was a 24.7% increase in the number (headcount) of contingent (non-directly employed) workers, from 1,576 at the end of September 2020, to 1,965 at the end of September 2021, an increase of 389 workers

the staff sickness level was 5.9 average working days lost (AWDL) per staff year in the 12 month period ending September 2021, compared with 6.8 AWDL for the 12 month period ending September 2020. This equates to a loss of 2.6% of working days in the 12 month period ending September 2021

just over half (55.5%) of the workforce were female, compared to 44.5% male. The proportion of female staff is higher than the same period last year (54.0% September 2020)

at the end of September 2021 the majority of staff were aged between 30 and 59, broken down as follows: 30-39 (25.4%), 40-49 (26.6%), 50-59 (24.2%), 17.5% were aged 16-29, and 6.3% were aged 60 or over

the proportion of directly employed staff providing diversity information has decreased for ethnicity, marital status, religion and sexual orientation and increased for disability since the same period last year