Two sets of statistics published on Wednesday gave details on the level of public and private sector employment in Scotland and on the number of people employed by the Scottish Government.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, the public sector accounted for 20.9% of total employment in Scotland and private sector employment accounted for 79.1%, according to the Public Sector Employment Statistics for Scotland, released by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.

In the year to the fourth quarter of 2015, employment in the public sector in Scotland fell by 400 to 545,400, the lowest Q4 level since 1999.

The Scottish Government said this decrease was driven “by reductions in the devolved public sector and the transfer of staff in local government to arms’ length external organisations (ALEOs).”

Employment in the Scottish private sector has increased by 1.1% over the past year, reaching 2,067,300 people.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government Workforce Information statistics have been published for the first time.

They show that at the end of December 2015, the Scottish Government had 5,120 full-time equivalent (FTE) directly employed staff, a decrease of 68 FTE staff since December 2014.