Fall In Public Sector Employment

The number of people in public sector employment fell by 7,000 to 6.09m in the first quarter of 2010. The number employed in central government remained the same but in local government the numbers fell by 4,000 and in public corporations by 3,000. The Civil Service lost 3,000 workers and its share of public secor employment stands at 529,000.

Analysing the figures according to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) industries the largest increase was the 4,000 (1.1%) increase in the National Health Service. Other health and social work increased by 4,000 (1%), education 3,000 (0.2%) and construction 1,000 (2%).

London is the region with the largest number of public sector emplyees with 782,000, then the North West with 696,000 and the South East 694,000 and Scotland 610,000. There were increases in publc sector emplyment of 4.3% or 19,000 in the East of England, 3% or 23,000 in London, the South West with 5,000 or 1% and East Midlands with 0.8% or 3,000 but decreases in the South East of 7,000 or 1%, a 0.6% fall in Yorkshire and the Humber of 3,000 and the West Midlands of 1,000 or 0.2%.

At the national level, the number of public sector workers in England increased by 0.8% or 37,000 and N.Ireland by 0.4% or 1,000. Scotland saw a decrease in employee numbers of 13,000 while Wales was unchanged.

The most significant losses in the Civil Service in Q1 2010 compared with Q4 2009 were in the Justice ministry, HM Revenue and Customs and Work and Pensions. Defra's losses were small in comparison.