SSC Media Release
Human Resource Capability Survey 2009
11 November 2009

The State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie, released the results of the Human Resource Capability Survey for 2009 today.

The report provides a summary of workforce statistics for the Public Service, for the year to 30 June 2009. The report covers six main topics: staff numbers, recruitment and retention, pay and benefits, equality and diversity, leave, and employment.

“Consistent with the Government’s expectations around capping the numbers of the core government administration, in the six months to 30 June 2009 the number of full time equivalent employees in the Public Service decreased by 625 – a decline of 1.4 percent. However, in the period up to 31 December 2008, numbers increased by 1,728 – a 4.0 percent rise. The change for the full 2008/09 year was an increase of 2.5 percent, from 43,569 to 44,672 and was the slowest growth since the survey began in 2000,” Iain Rennie said.

Over the past year, 301 employees in the Public Service were made redundant; an increase of 82 percent from 2008. This is the highest number of redundancies since 2000, when 781 employees in the Public Service were made redundant.

The average base salary in the Public Service increased by 5.3 percent to $62,713, from $59,532 in 2008. This movement represents salary increases relating to the 2007/08 year that are likely to have occurred in the first few months of the survey period.

“The Labour Cost Index from Statistics NZ indicates that over 90% of the annual salary movement in the Public Service occurred between July and December 2008, reflecting the Government’s expectations of restraint,” Iain Rennie said.

Other key points include:

• Core unplanned turnover dropped from 15 percent to 11 percent, the largest annual decrease since the HRC survey began in 2000. Most of the decrease in turnover occurred in the six months between 1 January 2009 and 30 June 2009. The occupation with the largest drop in turnover was public relations professionals.
• There was a significant decrease in recruitment for the year to 30 June 2009 as a result of a drop-off in numbers towards the end of the financial year. There were 362 new recruits in the month of June 2009, just over half the number who started in the previous June.
• Public servants are staying in their jobs for longer. The average length of service across all permanent public servants has increased to 8.2 years, up from 8.0 years a year ago. This represents the largest annual increase in tenure since the survey began in 2000.
The full report can be read here: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/hrc-survey-2009

Frequently Asked Questions

Who does the survey cover?
The HRC survey covers the Public Service – the 35 core departments. It does not cover any of the wider State Services agencies, like Crown entities, Crown Research Institutes or State Owned Enterprises.

The survey includes all permanent and temporary employees but does not include contractors or employees who work on a casual or as-required basis.

Where does the data come from?
Information in this report comes mainly from the Human Resource Capability (HRC) survey, which has collected anonymous unit-record data on staff in Public Service departments since 2000. Data from Statistics New Zealand’s labour market surveys are also used to allow comparisons with the labour force as a whole.

How does this differ from the Capping data?
The capping data is collected to monitor the Government’s cap on the number of positions in core government administration, which is not the same as the Public Service. The capping data focused on the number of FTE positions within the cap on core government administration and was released on 10 September, 2009 and is available here:
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/capping-data-to-30june09

The HRC report provides more detailed analysis of the Public Service workforce.

What about communications staff?
Communications staff are counted as part of the ‘managers’ or ‘other professionals’ groups in Table 3 (p.8). A separate count of communications staff was conducted as part of the Capping data, and it shows that for the period 31 December 2008 through to 30 June 2009 the numbers decreased from 321.3 to 291.5, a total reduction of 29.8.

How does this relate to the figures released in January?
In December 2008, a brief HR survey collected staff FTE numbers, headcounts and vacancies within each occupation and was used to set the baseline for the cap on core government administration of 38,859 FTE positions. The results were published in March, 2009 here:
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/capping

The staff numbers section of this report draws on the December data to examine changes over the six months to 30 June 2009. The rest of the analysis in this report is primarily based on annual figures collected through the full HRC survey as at 30 June 2009.

ENDS

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