There is much debate and discussion about the Coalition government’s fiscal austerity programme and the tens of thousands of public sector jobs likely to be shed over the remainder of this Parliament. Our Timetric chart today shows total public sector employment and indicates that the jobs contraction has certainly started reversing a long time period of growth in state sector jobs. Much of the spike in numbers post 2007 came from the transfer of several commercial banks into state ownership in the wake of the global financial crisis. The biggest single employer in the public sector is the NHS - here a turning point in employment has begun.

Data from Timetric.

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Labour Market: Public Sector, UK from Timetric

NHS employment

Data from Timetric.

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Public Sector Employment by Industry;NHS;UK;HC;SA;Thousands : qua… from Timetric