Public sector employment, UK: September 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 6.18 million in September 2025, an increase of 7,000 (0.1%) compared with June 2025, and an increase of 62,000 (1.0%) compared with September 2024.

• Employment in central government was a record high at an estimated 4.05 million in September 2025, an increase of 5,000 (0.1%) compared with June 2025 and an increase of 72,000 (1.8%) compared with September 2024; the main contributors to this increase were some local authority schools becoming academies, and the Civil Service.

• Employment in the NHS remained unchanged on the quarter at an estimated record high of 2.07 million in September 2025, this was an increase of 28,000 (1.4%) compared with September 2024.

• Employment in local government was a joint record low at an estimated 1.97 million in September 2025; this was unchanged compared with June 2025 and a decrease of 15,000 (0.8%) compared with September 2024.

• The estimated employment changes between local government and central government because of academy conversions in September 2025 were 9,000 (1.2%) on the quarter; local government would have increased on the quarter and central government would have decreased on the quarter without these conversions.

• Employment in public corporations was an estimated 161,000 in September 2025, an increase of 2,000 (1.3%) compared with June 2025 and an increase of 5,000 (3.2%) compared with September 2024; part of the annual increase is affected by a minor reclassification between March 2025 and June 2025.

• The Civil Service employed 554,000 people in September 2025, an increase of 3,000 (0.5%) compared with June 2025 and an increase of 6,000 (1.1%) compared with September 2024.

Revisions to public sector employment

This Public sector employment UK bulletin includes revisions to public sector employment estimates back to the start of the series in 1999. Revisions to the full time series from 1999 onwards result from a review of the seasonal adjustment parameters. Revisions from March 2024 onwards result from taking on updated sources of additional information. This is a regular annual process, as outlined in our Public sector employment quality and methodology information (QMI) report, which aims to improve the quality of our estimates.

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: December 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

Public sector employment (PSE) statistics are derived from a range of sources. The primary source is the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (QPSES), which comprises three separate data collections: the home Civil Service, local authorities in England and Wales, and Great Britain public corporations and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), which is supplemented by data from external sources. Further information can be found in our PSE QMI report.

The QPSES response rate for each separate collection is:

• 100% for Civil Service

• 93% for local authorities

• 96% for public corporations and NDPBs

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.

Data collected for our public sector employment estimates are collected from a range of providers. These include through ONS surveys, devolved administration surveys, and admin sources, a full list of which can be found in our PSE QMI report. Data collected through the ONS Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (QPSES) ask organisations for total headcount estimates and full-time equivalent (FTE) estimates based on an employee’s contracted hours, regardless of contract type. However, some data collected by other agencies include FTE estimates based on an employee’s actual worked hours during the survey reference period. We are working with suppliers to investigate the impact and next steps.

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 report.

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".