This is the latest in a series of annual articles on jobs in the public and private sectors. This article updates the figures to June 2002, the latest date for which there is comprehensive information.
First it examines the latest figures for public sector jobs and also their historical context. It then goes on to look at relative movements in public and private sector jobs. The public sector data in this article are derived from administrative sources and a survey of local authorities. It is combined with data from the Labour Force Survey and Workforce Jobs to produce information on the private sector. Around 86,000 new jobs were created in the public sector last year, slightly less than the 118,000 rise in the previous year. Employment in the public sector has now grown in three of the last four years since 1998. Prior to these gains, employment in the public sector had fallen for over fifteen years in a row.
The fastest growing areas of public sector employment have been health and education. Job growth in the economy as a whole continued last year, despite the fact that output growth was below trend. The job gains were split fairly evenly between the public and private sectors but given that the public sector only constitutes about 19 per cent of total jobs, the contribution of the public sector to employment growth was unusually large.
Despite the recent job gains in the public sector, the private sector still accounts for over 80 per cent of total jobs. The private sector is the dominant employer in production and construction and in many services. In contrast the public sector is the dominant employer in public administration, health and education.
Published in web format: 10 September 2003 at 9:30 am
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