One in four employed in burgeoning state sector

THE full extent of Scotland's reliance on the public sector was revealed in new statistics yesterday which showed that one in every four workers is now employed by the state.

Tom McCabe, the minister for public services, published figures for the first time which show how many people are employed in each part of the public sector in Scotland.

A total of 572,900 Scots are employed by the state while 1,860,100 work for private companies. This means that the public sector accounts for 23.5 per cent of total Scottish employment.

Not all countries compile their statistics in the same way but according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures from 2001, Scotland has the highest rate, employing more people in the public sector than any other western nation.

England has about 20 per cent of its workforce in the public sector while the United States has just 14 per cent working for the government.

The highest European totals were recorded by Denmark with 23.1 per cent, still lower than Scotland, and Finland with 21 per cent.

All the other European countries recorded public sector workforces of about 15 per cent of their labour force.

The Scottish Executive statistics were difficult to interpret because two different methods were used.

The headline figure of 572,900 represents the total number of people employed by the state in Scotland, full-time and part-time, while the breakdown of individual sectors was done by "full-time equivalent" - counting up part-time workers until they accounted for one full-time worker.

The total number of full-time equivalent public sector workers in Scotland is 483,700 and the biggest part of this comes from local government, which employs 258,400 people while the health service employs 122,000. The number of civil servants in Scotland is 47,400 but the Scottish Executive accounts for a only small part of that total.

Some 14,700 people work for the Executive and associated agencies, while 32,700 are employed by other government departments and agencies.

The Tories criticised the Executive for allowing the public sector to grow to such an extraordinary size, warning that the size of the public sector was inhibiting the growth of Scotland's economy.

David McLetchie, the Scottish Tory leader, said: "The Scottish Executive seems oblivious to the economic fundamentals at work here. Increasing public sector employment crowds out private sector activity, and therefore a contracting private sector has to pay more and more for an expanding public sector - it's not difficult to see that this is unsustainable."

Ministers insisted that, although the size of the public sector in Scotland has grown substantially, it has been outstripped by the burgeoning size of the private sector. Pay growth has, however, been faster in the public sector than in the private sector.

They claimed that, since 2002, the number of people working in the public sector has gone up by 27,600 while the private sector workforce has increased by 58,400.

Mr McCabe also insisted that the growth in Scotland's public services was delivering more frontline teachers, nurses and police officers.

He said: "We want to ensure the appropriate balance of staff and resources at the frontline to ensure the effective delivery of services and we will continue to drive forward our Efficient Government agenda cross the public sector, attacking waste, bureaucracy and duplication to ensure the most efficient use of taxpayers' money."