Public sector employment, UK: March 2025

• Labour market overview, UK 

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain 

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK 

• Employment in the UK 

• Labour market in the regions of the UK 

• Vacancies and jobs in the UK

• Employment in the public sector was estimated at 6.15 million in March 2025, an increase of 7,000 (0.1%) compared with December 2024, and an increase of 35,000 (0.6%) compared with March 2024. 

• Employment in central government was a record high at an estimated 4.02 million in March 2025, an increase of 19,000 (0.5%) compared with December 2024, and an increase of 93,000 (2.4%) compared with March 2024; the main contributors to this increase were the NHS, some local authority schools becoming academies, and the Civil Service. 

• The NHS employed an estimated record high of 2.06 million people in March 2025, an increase of 9,000 (0.4%) compared with December 2024, and an increase of 44,000 (2.2%) compared with March 2024. 

• Employment in local government was a record low at an estimated 1.98 million in March 2025, a decrease of 9,000 (0.5%) compared with December 2024, and a decrease of 20,000 (1.0%) compared with March 2024; some local authority schools becoming academies contributed to this decrease. 

• The estimated employment changes between local government and central government because of academy conversions in March 2025 is 8,000 (1.1%) on the quarter and 35,000 (5.1%) on the year; this conversion is contributing toward the gains and losses in these sectors. 

• Employment in public corporations was an estimated 154,000 in March 2025, a decrease of 3,000 (1.9%) compared with December 2024, and a decrease of 38,000 (19.8%) compared with March 2024; the annual decrease is partly affected by a reclassification between March 2024 and June 2024. 

• The Civil Service employed 550,000 people in March 2025, an increase of 2,000 (0.4%) compared with December 2024, and an increase of 6,000 (1.1%) compared with March 2024.

Labour Force Survey 

Estimates of total employment and private sector employment are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) as part of this release.

Ongoing challenges with response rates and levels mean that LFS-based labour market statistics will be badged as official statistics in development and we advise caution when using the data, until further review. For more information, please see the Data sources and quality section of the Employment in the UK: June 2025 release.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)  

Read more about how the labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.  

For a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences, read our Comparison of our labour market data sources methodology.  

Sources 

The main source of public sector employment (PSE) data is the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (QPSES), which is supplemented by data from external sources. Further information can be found in our PSE quality and methodology information (QMI). 

The response rate for the QPSES was 93.1% in March 2025.

Full-time equivalents 

While this bulletin focuses on headcount estimates of PSE, full-time equivalent estimates (based on the number of hours worked divided by the standard full-time hours) are available in our accompanying PSE datasets. 

Seasonal adjustment 

All PSE data time series in this release, with the exception of the regional series, are seasonally adjusted to aid interpretation. Relationships that hold in the unadjusted series do not necessarily hold for the seasonally adjusted series. For example, total PSE equals the total of all public sector industry estimates before seasonal adjustment, but this is not necessarily true after seasonal adjustment. 

Reclassifications between the public and private sectors 

Comparisons of public and private sector employment over time are complicated by several major reclassifications. This is where bodies employing large numbers of people have moved between the public and private sectors. We produce estimates of public and private sector employment excluding the effects of major reclassifications to help you understand underlying trends in employment. We publish these alongside estimates of total public and private sector employment in Tables 5, 6a and 7a of the PSE datasets. 

More quality and methodology information 

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Public sector employment QMI. 

Accredited official statistics 

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2022. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".