474 fewer government staff

Stuff reports:

The Government is trumpeting a big reduction in back office staff over the past year, with the number of core administration staff now at the lowest level since the current “cap” was put in place in 2012.

That comes just a day after it was revealed that the Treasury had blown its 390 staff cap by 64 to reach a payroll of 454 full time equivalent (FTE) employees.

State Services Minister Paula Bennett said “ongoing restraint in the public sector and a focus on better frontline services” had seen the number of core Government employees fall by 474 in the past year to 35,632 – 843 fewer FTEs than the cap set by the Government in 2012.

Good. And how does this compare to the past:

Back office staff numbers climbed by close to 10,000 to over 45,000 under the previous Government, she said.

And no doubt will again once they are back in office. Labour has never found a problem to which the solution isn’t more staff and more spending.