Scottish Government Workforce Statistics December 2024 - Scottish Government Employee Numbers Still Increasing

20th March 2025

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 2024.

The statistics show that:

At the end of December 2024 there were 8,975 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, an increase on last year’s figure of 8,824 (1.7%) at the end of December 2023.
At the end of December 2024 99.5% of full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff were permanent and 0.5% were temporary. This compares to last year (December 2023: 99.2%, 0.8%).

There was a 24% decrease in the number (headcount) of contingent (non-directly employed) workers from the end of December 2023 (1,436) to the end of December 2024 (1,096), a decrease of 340 workers.

The staff sickness level was 8.6 average working days lost (AWDL) per staff year in the 12 month period ending December 2024, compared with 8.2 AWDL for the 12 month period ending December 2023. This equates to a loss of 3.8% of working days in the 12 month period ending December 2024.

Just over half (56.5%) of the workforce were female, compared to 43.5% male. The proportion of female staff is slightly higher than that in the same period last year (56.4% December 2023).

At the end of December 2024 the majority of staff were aged between 30 and 59, broken down as follows: 30-39 (28.6%), 40-49 (27.8%), 50-59 (22.6%), 13.9% were aged 16-29, and 7.2% were aged 60 or over.

Detailed statistics on the diversity and inclusion of the Scottish Government workforce were also published today and are available at https://data.gov.scot/workforce-diversity-2024/.

The figures released today were produced in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

The full statistics are available at:

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

The statistics contain quarterly data from March 2012 to December 2024 and present:

full time equivalent numbers and headcounts in each directly employed staff category
headcounts of contingent workers engaged in work for the Scottish Government
sickness absence levels of directly employed staff, headcounts of directly employed staff by age, disability status, ethnicity, sex, marital/civil partnership status, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.
The Scottish Government uses the data internally for monitoring the performance of its workforce. Other expected users of the data in this publication are likely to include the general public and media for information about the Scottish Government, and other government departments for comparative purposes.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff. More information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at:

Statistics and research - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)