The full extent of the public service in Scotland, and indeed in the UK as a whole, is extremely difficult to determine with accuracy. It can be held to include not only the civil servants in government departments as popularly understood, but also a vast array of industrial civil servants, such as naval dockyard workers, employees of public corporations like the Post Office, British Rail, the National Coal Board and the British Steel Corporation, and the staff of the National Health Service. Numerous other bodies are in close relationship with the central public service and are publicly financed, such as the research institutes and councils, which employ many university graduates, and distinctively Scottish bodies like the Crofters Commission and the Scottish Tourist Board. Members of the armed forces and the staff of defence establishments must also be taken into account, from the rocket-testers on the Isle of Barra to the crews of submarines in the Gare Loch.

Local government provides another large sector of public employment, and encompasses not only the administrators of the local authorities, but also other employees such as schoolteachers, housebuilders, bus drivers, and conductors. Further removed are nominally private bodies such as the universities, Govan Shipbuilders, and the Scottish Council (Development and Industry), which rely in part on public funds.