Scottish Government Workforce Statistics September 2024

18th December 2024

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 2024.

The statistics show that:

At the end of September 2024 there were 9,014 full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, an increase on last year’s figure of 8,771 (2.8%) at the end of September 2023.
At the end of September 2024 99.5% of full time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff were permanent and 0.5% were temporary. This compares to last year (September 2023: 99%, 1%).
There was a 17% decrease in the number (headcount) of contingent (non-directly employed) workers from the end of September 2023 (1,492) to the end of September 2024 (1,235), a decrease of 257 workers.
The staff sickness level was 8.6 average working days lost (AWDL) per staff year in the 12 month period ending September 2024, compared with 8.1 AWDL for the 12 month period ending
September 2023. This equates to a loss of 3.8% of working days in the 12 month period ending September 2024.

Just over half (56.5%) of the workforce were female, compared to 43.5% male. The proportion of female staff is slightly less than that in the same period last year (56.6% September 2023).

At the end of September 2024 the majority of staff were aged between 30 and 59, broken down as follows: 30-39 (28.1%), 40-49 (27.7%), 50-59 (22.6%), 14.5% were aged 16-29, and 7% were aged 60 or over.

The most recent diversity and inclusion information within the SG workforce is found at https://data.gov.scot/workforce-diversity-2023/.