{ "id": "public-sector-employment", "title": "Public sector employment, UK", "category": "labour-market", "summary": "People employed in the UK public sector – central government, local government and public corporations – each quarter since 1999, thousands, seasonally adjusted.", "unit": "thousands", "chart": "line", "volatile": false, "status": "", "notes": [ "Headcount, not full-time equivalents. The ONS counts employment at a date in the last month of each quarter." ], "provenance": { "publisher": "Office for National Statistics", "publisher_url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/", "source_page": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/g7au/lms", "licence": "OGL-3.0", "licence_name": "Open Government Licence v3.0", "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/", "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-31T11:12:53Z", "raw_files": [ { "name": "series.json", "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/g7au/lms/data", "sha256": "cc0c8e26002fec6bc5374f9eb9a963ab5efe4e768e909600cc82f969464652e0", "bytes": 30318, "content_type": "application/json;charset=utf-8" } ] }, "meta": { "ons_title": "Public Sector Employment by Sector; Total Public Sector; UK; HC; SA; Thousands", "cdid": "G7AU", "ons_dataset": "LMS", "release_date": "2026-10-19T23:00:00.000Z", "next_release": "17 November 2026", "ons_unit": "000's", "frequency": "quarters" }, "headline": { "label": "Public sector employment", "value": 6207.0, "period": "2026 Q2" }, "series": [ { "name": "Public sector employment", "points": [ { "x": "1999 Q1", "v": 5398.0 }, { "x": "1999 Q2", "v": 5411.0 }, { "x": "1999 Q3", "v": 5432.0 }, { "x": "1999 Q4", "v": 5460.0 }, { "x": "2000 Q1", "v": 5472.0 }, { "x": "2000 Q2", "v": 5491.0 }, { "x": "2000 Q3", "v": 5513.0 }, { "x": "2000 Q4", "v": 5526.0 }, { "x": "2001 Q1", "v": 5554.0 }, { "x": "2001 Q2", "v": 5581.0 }, { "x": "2001 Q3", "v": 5605.0 }, { "x": "2001 Q4", "v": 5629.0 }, { "x": "2002 Q1", "v": 5670.0 }, { "x": "2002 Q2", "v": 5695.0 }, { "x": "2002 Q3", "v": 5724.0 }, { "x": "2002 Q4", "v": 5776.0 }, { "x": "2003 Q1", "v": 5827.0 }, { "x": "2003 Q2", "v": 5858.0 }, { "x": "2003 Q3", "v": 5894.0 }, { "x": "2003 Q4", "v": 5937.0 }, { "x": "2004 Q1", "v": 5970.0 }, { "x": "2004 Q2", "v": 5995.0 }, { "x": "2004 Q3", "v": 6026.0 }, { "x": "2004 Q4", "v": 6039.0 }, { "x": "2005 Q1", "v": 6059.0 }, { "x": "2005 Q2", "v": 6090.0 }, { "x": "2005 Q3", "v": 6091.0 }, { "x": "2005 Q4", "v": 6087.0 }, { "x": "2006 Q1", "v": 6072.0 }, { "x": "2006 Q2", "v": 6061.0 }, { "x": "2006 Q3", "v": 6045.0 }, { "x": "2006 Q4", "v": 6037.0 }, { "x": "2007 Q1", "v": 6033.0 }, { "x": "2007 Q2", "v": 6028.0 }, { "x": "2007 Q3", "v": 6018.0 }, { "x": "2007 Q4", "v": 6023.0 }, { "x": "2008 Q1", "v": 5997.0 }, { "x": "2008 Q2", "v": 6019.0 }, { "x": "2008 Q3", "v": 6169.0 }, { "x": "2008 Q4", "v": 6429.0 }, { "x": "2009 Q1", "v": 6431.0 }, { "x": "2009 Q2", "v": 6440.0 }, { "x": "2009 Q3", "v": 6463.0 }, { "x": "2009 Q4", "v": 6459.0 }, { "x": "2010 Q1", "v": 6448.0 }, { "x": "2010 Q2", "v": 6436.0 }, { "x": "2010 Q3", "v": 6382.0 }, { "x": "2010 Q4", "v": 6340.0 }, { "x": "2011 Q1", "v": 6316.0 }, { "x": "2011 Q2", "v": 6238.0 }, { "x": "2011 Q3", "v": 6200.0 }, { "x": "2011 Q4", "v": 6161.0 }, { "x": "2012 Q1", "v": 6125.0 }, { "x": "2012 Q2", "v": 6082.0 }, { "x": "2012 Q3", "v": 6057.0 }, { "x": "2012 Q4", "v": 6043.0 }, { "x": "2013 Q1", "v": 6026.0 }, { "x": "2013 Q2", "v": 6023.0 }, { "x": "2013 Q3", "v": 6027.0 }, { "x": "2013 Q4", "v": 5858.0 }, { "x": "2014 Q1", "v": 5751.0 }, { "x": "2014 Q2", "v": 5736.0 }, { "x": "2014 Q3", "v": 5721.0 }, { "x": "2014 Q4", "v": 5711.0 }, { "x": "2015 Q1", "v": 5687.0 }, { "x": "2015 Q2", "v": 5674.0 }, { "x": "2015 Q3", "v": 5658.0 }, { "x": "2015 Q4", "v": 5665.0 }, { "x": "2016 Q1", "v": 5660.0 }, { "x": "2016 Q2", "v": 5651.0 }, { "x": "2016 Q3", "v": 5647.0 }, { "x": "2016 Q4", "v": 5633.0 }, { "x": "2017 Q1", "v": 5634.0 }, { "x": "2017 Q2", "v": 5640.0 }, { "x": "2017 Q3", "v": 5629.0 }, { "x": "2017 Q4", "v": 5496.0 }, { "x": "2018 Q1", "v": 5497.0 }, { "x": "2018 Q2", "v": 5498.0 }, { "x": "2018 Q3", "v": 5490.0 }, { "x": "2018 Q4", "v": 5507.0 }, { "x": "2019 Q1", "v": 5517.0 }, { "x": "2019 Q2", "v": 5539.0 }, { "x": "2019 Q3", "v": 5560.0 }, { "x": "2019 Q4", "v": 5576.0 }, { "x": "2020 Q1", "v": 5603.0 }, { "x": "2020 Q2", "v": 5695.0 }, { "x": "2020 Q3", "v": 5699.0 }, { "x": "2020 Q4", "v": 5731.0 }, { "x": "2021 Q1", "v": 5809.0 }, { "x": "2021 Q2", "v": 5819.0 }, { "x": "2021 Q3", "v": 5836.0 }, { "x": "2021 Q4", "v": 5857.0 }, { "x": "2022 Q1", "v": 5870.0 }, { "x": "2022 Q2", "v": 5885.0 }, { "x": "2022 Q3", "v": 5899.0 }, { "x": "2022 Q4", "v": 5930.0 }, { "x": "2023 Q1", "v": 5963.0 }, { "x": "2023 Q2", "v": 6007.0 }, { "x": "2023 Q3", "v": 6055.0 }, { "x": "2023 Q4", "v": 6089.0 }, { "x": "2024 Q1", "v": 6116.0 }, { "x": "2024 Q2", "v": 6096.0 }, { "x": "2024 Q3", "v": 6122.0 }, { "x": "2024 Q4", "v": 6146.0 }, { "x": "2025 Q1", "v": 6156.0 }, { "x": "2025 Q2", "v": 6174.0 }, { "x": "2025 Q3", "v": 6183.0 }, { "x": "2025 Q4", "v": 6191.0 }, { "x": "2026 Q1", "v": 6196.0 }, { "x": "2026 Q2", "v": 6207.0 } ] } ] }