Some 25,820 ‘full time equivalent’ (FTE) civil service jobs were lost in the nine months since the spending review, figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed. This equates to a 5.4 per cent total fall since the third quarter of 2010.


Job losses were slow until spring this year, since when a total of 18,270 FTE civil service jobs – or 3.9 per cent of the total – have left their jobs. The total headcount reduction over the same period – a figure that makes no differentiation between full- and part-time staff – was 24,000.

Some departments suffered greater job losses than others. Since the spending review, the total FTE job losses at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), including agencies, was 9,730. This equates to an eight per cent fall.
The total job losses at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was 1,410, or a loss of 5.9 per cent.

Two departments increased their staffing: the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). DCMS gained an extra 40 staff, a seven per cent increase, while DECC gained 50 extra staff, a 4.4 per cent increase.

Written by Civil Service World