Occupational profile of the workforce, employee numbers, occupational trends and customer-facing roles.
Occupational profile of workforce
Public Service employees were engaged in a wide range of jobs spread across 289 different occupations in 2025. These can be divided into 10 broad occupational groups as shown in the following chart.
In 2025, the two largest groups are inspectors and regulatory officers and social, health and education workers, accounting for 20.2% and 17.4% respectively of the Public Service workforce. The share for inspectors and regulatory officers has increased for the second consecutive year, after falling to a record low 17.8% in 2023. Public servants working in these occupation groups are primarily delivering services to the public, including occupations such as Prison Officers and Welfare Workers.
The third largest group, information professionals, has 14.4% of all the Public Service workforce. This is the second consecutive decline in this workforce, after reaching a record high 14.9% in 2023. Information professionals encompass various roles, such as data analysts, business and intelligence analysts, service designers, non-policy advisors, librarians, archivists, project managers, statisticians, and governance roles.
Staff numbers by occupation
Between 2024 and 2025, the Public Service workforce (FTEs) decreased by 883 (or 1.4%).
Only two occupation groups increased in size between 2024 and 2025. Inspectors and Regulatory Officers increased by 743 FTEs (or 6.2%). This was driven by an increase in the number of corrections officers. Legal, HR and Finance Professionals had a small 9 FTE (or 0.3%) increase.
All other occupation groups had decreases, as agencies responded to the need to implement the governments priorities, while achieving savings. The largest decrease was in the number of Managers (down 383 FTEs, or 4.8%), a second consecutive decline in this occupation group. There were also declines for the second consecutive year in the number of Policy Analysts, Information Professionals and Clerical and Administrative Workers.
These occupation statistics are collated using Stats NZ classifications. We are currently transitioning to the new Stats NZ National Occupation List, which provides more relevant occupations for the Public Service workforce. Agencies have taken the opportunity to relook at how they code their job roles to occupations. This has affected occupational changes over the past year, in particular contributing to the decreases in the Other Professional and Other occupation groups.
Public Service occupational trends
The following table shows how occupation groups by Public Service department have changed over the last 5 years.
Customer-facing roles
In 2025, just over 39% of public servants who responded to the Public Service Census had customer-facing roles, working directly with the public, external customers and clients, or people in their care.