Public sector employment, UK: June 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 6.17 million in June 2025, an increase of 17,000 (0.3%) compared with March 2025, and an increase of 75,000 (1.2%) compared with June 2024.

• Employment in central government was a record high at an estimated 4.04 million in June 2025, an increase of 21,000 (0.5%) compared with March 2025 and an increase of 95,000 (2.4%) compared with June 2024; the main contributors to this increase were the NHS, some local authority schools becoming academies, and the Civil Service.

• Employment in the NHS was a record high at an estimated 2.07 million in June 2025, an increase of 9,000 (0.4%) compared with March 2025 and an increase of 42,000 (2.1%) compared with June 2024.

• Employment in local government was a record low at an estimated 1.97 million in June 2025, a decrease of 4,000 (0.2%) compared with March 2025 and a decrease of 21,000 (1.1%) compared with June 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 June 2025 were 8,000 (1.1%) on the quarter and 33,000 (4.7%) 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 June 2025, the same as in March 2025 and an increase of 1,000 (0.7%) compared with June 2024.

• The Civil Service employed 551,000 people in June 2025, an increase of 1,000 (0.2%) compared with March 2025 and an increase of 5,000 (0.9%) compared with June 2024.

Revisions to public sector employment

We aim to include scheduled revisions of public sector employment estimates for the entire data series in our next Public sector employment in the UK bulletin, publishing on 16 December 2025. Revisions will result from a regular annual review of the seasonal adjustment parameters and from taking on updated sources of additional information. This is an annual process, as outlined in our PSE quality and methodology information (QMI).

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: September 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, which is supplemented by data from external sources. Further information can be found in our PSE quality and methodology information (QMI).

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 quality and methodology information (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".