State Services Commission
Human Resource Capability Survey 2011

18 October 2011

Public Service Staffing as at 30 June 2011
The Deputy State Services Commissioner, John Ombler, today released the results of the Human Resource Capability Survey for 2011.

The report provides a summary of workforce statistics for the Public Service, for the year to 30 June 2011. The report covers five main topics: staff numbers, pay and benefits, recruitment and retention, equality and diversity, and leave.

Latest figures from the report show that the number of full time equivalent employees fell for the second consecutive year by 959 to 43,595 – a decline of 2.2 percent. By contrast, between 2001 and 2009 Public Service staff numbers increased by an average of 4.9 percent per year.

“This continued downward trend is a clear demonstration of how Public Service departments are responding to increasing financial pressures by managing their people resources and effectively delivering on the Government’s expectations around capping the core government administration.”

While the number of redundancies in the Public Service increased in the year to 30 June 2011 by 13 percent, the average redundancy payment decreased in 2011 to $45,749, down from $48,891 in 2010.

The latest HRC survey figures show the average base salary in the Public Service increased slightly by 2.4 percent in 2011, up from 1.5 percent in 2010. However, the estimated annual expenditure by departments on base salaries remained unchanged in 2011 at a total of $2.8 billion.

Public Service wages and salaries are increasing at a slower rate than in the private sector. Information from the Labour Cost Index shows an increase of 1.1 percent in Public Service wages over the last twelve months to 30 June 2011 compared with a 2.0 percent increase in private sector wages for the same period.

The rate of public servants leaving their jobs during the year increased from 9.2 percent in 2010 to 10.9 percent in 2011. Twenty three departments reported increases in core unplanned turnover during the period to 30 June 2011 pushing up the overall turnover rate across all thirty three Public Service departments by 1.7 percent.

The average number of sick and domestic leave days taken by public servants dropped from 7.7 days in 2010 to 7.4 days in 2011.
The Human Resource Capability Survey is published on the SSC website at www.ssc.govtnz/hrc-survey-2011

ENDS

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