Shrinking public service workforce hit peak in December

Public service minister Nicola Willis says the full impact of Budget 2024 is yet to show up in workforce figures. (Image: Getty)

Jem Traylen

Thu, 13 Jun 2024

The latest workforce data from the Public Service Commission is showing the first real drop in the number of public servants since the last time the National party was in government.The data released on Thursday showed the total number of jobs in the core public service fell by 416 full-time equivalents (0.6%) in the March quarter.There had previously been a small technical decrease in the number of public servants in 2022, but this was mainly due to jobs being transferred from the Ministry of Health to the newly formed Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ)...

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