THE proportion of people employed in the public sector in Scotland is at its lowest level for six years, with the number of jobs in private enterprise set to break the historic two million barrier next year.
Scottish Government statistics released yesterday show that there were 575,700 people employed in the public sector between July and September this year, down 6,100 since last year.
This is the equivalent of one in five working people being emplo
yed in the public sector.
The private sector north of the Border has seen a continuous rise in staff, from 1,911,800 in the third quarter of last year to 1,975,800 this year.
If this trend continues, Scotland will have more than two million people in the private sector next year, with a continuing fall in the public sector.
Last night, the figures were welcomed by economists as a demonstrating the strength of the Scottish economy and signalling the prospect of future growth.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, said:
"The shift towards a greater proportion of employees working in the private sector is an encouraging sign and should help to provide a firm foundation for stronger economic growth in Scotland in the future."
The decline in the public- sector workforce is largely due to reductions in the number of employees in local government and the central civil service.
However, the statistics also show that Scotland still has a higher proportion of people working in the public sector than the UK average.
There were 5,770,000 people in the public sector in the UK as a whole, equivalent to 19.7 per cent of the workforce, with 23,521,000 in the private sector, representing 80.3 per cent of the workforce.
John Swinney, the finance secretary, said: "The Scottish Government is determined to simplify the public sector and focus resources on improved delivery of frontline services. Good government has to be about results and value for money."
