Skills
The 2025 Public Service Census showed that more than half of respondents (56%) thought their skills were a good match for their job, but 15% thought they needed more training to do their job well. Compared with the 2021 survey, the proportion of people who feel they have the skills to cope with more demanding work has dropped slightly from 33%, to 29% in 2025.
See more about career development and access to training on our Mobility page.
Public Service Census – Mobility
Qualification levels
In the 2025 Public Service Census, 65% of participants had a Bachelor’s degree or higher, slightly up from 62% in 2021. The Public Service workforce is more highly qualified, on average than the overall New Zealand workforce, 38% of which had a Bachelor’s degree or higher qualification.[1] Only 15% of public servants had no post-school qualification, compared with 35% of the overall New Zealand workforce.
Languages
Based on the 2025 Public Service Census, after English, te reo Māori was the second most common language spoken by public servants (7.1%, up from 6.0% in 2021). This was followed by French (2.7%), Samoan (2.6%), Hindi (2.1%), Spanish (2.1%), German (1.5%), and 1.1% who are fluent in sign language.
Nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) said they could have a conversation about a lot of everyday things in at least one second language, with a total of 121 different languages covered.