Scottish Government Workforce Statistics December 2021 - Over 1000 Increase Since 2020

15th March 2022

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 December 2021.

The statistics show that:

at the end of December 2021 there were 8,289 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, an increase on last year's figure of 7,271 at the end of December 2020. The percentage of directly employed staff in permanent (98%) and temporary (2%) categories was similar to last year (December 2020: 98%, 2%).

there was a 16.4% increase in the number (headcount) of contingent (non-directly employed) workers from the end of December 2020 (1,740) to the end of December 2021 (2,026), an increase of 286 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 (55.8%) of the workforce were female, compared to 44.2% male. The proportion of female staff is higher than the same period last year (54.2% December 2020).

at the end of December 2021 the majority of staff were aged between 30 and 59, broken down as follows: 30-39 (6%), 40-49 (26.1%), 50-59 (24.0%) , 18.1% were aged 16-29, and 6.2% were aged 60 or over.

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

Scottish Government Workforce Information
https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/