- 5.7 million people work in the public sector
- East Midlands: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- East of England: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- London: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- North West: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- South East: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- South West: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- Wales: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- West Midlands: Public Sector Employment, 2012
- Yorkshire and the Humber: Public Sector Employment, 2012
Correction
30 April 2013
A minor error was discovered in the adjustment applied to regional public and private sector employment estimates to remove the impact of the reclassification of Colleges in England. This affected estimates prior to 2010 Q4 of regional public sector employment excluding Further Education Colleges and Sixth Form College Corporations for total regional public sector employment, public sector employment as a proportion of total employment, General Government employment and public sector employment in Education. The regional private sector employment including colleges was also affected by this error.
ONS has today reissued the affected reference tables and corrected bulletin text commenting on the data.
ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused. For more information please contact pse@ons.gov.uk
An estimated 22.2% of people in employment in the North East worked in the public sector in September 2012. This is the highest proportion of the English regions but is lower than the proportion in Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland.
Total public sector employment in the North East rose by around 2% between March 2008 and September 2009 to nearly 300,000 and then fell 15% to just over 250,000 in September 2012. Removing the impact of the reclassification of further education and sixth form colleges in England to the private sector in April 2012, public sector employment in the North East fell by 12% from a peak of just under 290,000.
Local government employment in the North East fell each year between 2008 and 2012 and was 24% lower in September 2012 than in March 2008. This is the largest percentage fall in any region of the UK.
Central government employment decreased between March 2008 and September 2012 by around 2%. When the impact of the reclassification of English colleges is removed, central government employment increased between 2008 and 2012 by just under 6%. The increase in central government employment is due to schools in the North East becoming academies and thus transferring from local government to central government.
