Rahi Workforce size

Public Service annual analysis – year to June 2025

There were 62,654 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff as at 30 June 2025. This is an annual decrease of 1.4% (or 883 FTEs) from 63,537 FTEs in June 2024. The quarterly change from March 2025 was a decrease of 0.9% or 583 FTEs. 

2023/24 was the first year in which some workforce data has been collected quarterly. This shows that FTEs peaked in the December 2023 quarter at 65,699 and have decreased by 4.6% (or 3,044 FTEs) since then, as shown in the table below. Although, some of this 18-month decrease is seasonal, our modelling, the large size of the decrease and the number of redundancies over this period suggests that this is more driven by agencies implementing the Government’s savings intentions. 

As with the overall change in the size of the Public Service workforce in 2025, most agencies decreased, with 23 of the 40 Public Service departments and departmental agencies dropping in size (17 increased). These decreases reflect agencies responding to the Government’s intentions to make savings by reducing back-office services and refocusing their workforce towards government priorities. The largest decreases in FTEs were at: 

• The Ministry of Education (down 552 FTEs, or 12.6%). 

• The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (down 391 FTEs, or 6.3). 

• Oranga Tamariki (down 307 FTEs, or 6.3%). 

• The Ministry of the Environment (down 204 FTEs, or 21.7%).   

The largest increases in FTEs in the year to 30 June 2025 occurred at: 

• The Department of Corrections (up 660 FTEs, or 6.4%), due to reduced turnover, and increased funding and recruitment into front line positions, including corrections officers.  

• Inland Revenue (up 142 FTEs, or 3.2%), primarily in front line roles; increasing funding for compliance and delivering new products including FamilyBoost.  

• Department of Conservation (up 115 FTEs, or 4.5%) driven by short term project work, and digital transformation. Some of this increase is funded by the International Visitor Levy.  

• Social Investment Agency (up 15 FTEs, or 40.9%). This was due to increased funding for new functions, such as establishing the Social Investment Fund, setting across government social investment standards, and facilitating the creation of new social investment data and evidence. 

One agency, the Ministry for Regulation, was established in March 2024; their growth this year is due to recruitment to fill their permanent workforce. Some agencies have experienced changes in workforce numbers over the past year due to functions moving from one agency to another. In particular: 

• Whaikaha – the Ministry of Disabled People (down 182 FTEs, or 72%) had functions move to the Ministry of Social Development. 

• The Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana: Te Tari Whakatau (down 68 FTEs, or 36%) had functions move to Te Puni Kokiri.  

• The Public Service Commission (up 19 FTEs, or 10.6%) began to host the Crown Response Office, which was formed from Oranga Tamariki’s Crown Response Unit. 

Departmental FTE changes(CSV, 46 KB)

Crown entity FTE changes(CSV, 8 KB)

Crown Entity Annual analysis – year to June 2025 

To help measure progress on the Government’s contractor and consultant target, the Public Service Commission began collecting workforce data in 2023 for the baseline agencies that sit outside the core Public Service. That is Crown entities, Police, NZ Defence Force and the Māori Health Authority.  This data is presented in the ‘Crown Entity FTE changes’ table in the preceding visualisation. It shows that FTE numbers across these baseline agencies sum to 131,272 FTEs as at 30 June 2025, an increase of 0.1% from June 2024.

The baseline agencies include two of the three non-Public Service departments in the Executive branch (Police and the NZ Defence Force). If we include the third non-Public Service department, Parliamentary Counsel Office, the FTEs at 30 June 2025 sum to 131,382.

For details of these changes by department please see the “Departmental FTE changes” tab in the visualisation above.   

Contractor and consultant expenditure 

This section presents results on contractor and consultant expenditure in the Public Service and Crown entities and how it has changed over time. 

The Governments expectation has been that by the end of the 2024/25 financial year there will be a reduction in operational expenditure (OPEX) of $400 million from the 2022/23 baseline. This baseline covers expenditure from departments, departmental agencies, Crown entities, NZDF, NZ Police and Māori Health Authority (prior to its disestablishment).   

Across all agencies, the final full-year results for 2024/25 confirm that there was a decrease in OPEX of around $641 million (or 34%) from the previous year to $1,246m. Over the two years from the 2022/23 baseline, the decrease was around $915 million (or 42%). 

Public Service annual analysis – year to June 2025 

In 2024/25, Public Service organisations spent a total of $611.1 million on contractors and consultants. This was a large decrease of 35.0% on the 2023/24 spend of $940.0 million. This followed government expectations being set to reduce this expenditure, as well as Budget 24 setting an expectation that contractor and consultant expenditure was a first port of call to achieve savings.   

Total expenditure comprises OPEX of $352.6 million (down 43.0% from $618.5 million in 2023/24) and capital expenditure of $258.5 million (down 19.6% from $321.5 million in 2023/24). 

Operating expenditure on contractors and consultants was 5.3% of total Public Service workforce spend ($6,712.2 million), a decrease from 8.9% in 2023/24 and 13.1% in 2022/23. This measure represents the balance between using external resources where appropriate and building capacity and capability in the Public Service. 

Contractor and Consultant Expenditure agency(CSV, 17 KB)

Contractor and Consultant Expenditure Crown Entities(CSV, 13 KB)

Contractor and Consultant OPEX Share(CSV, 153 bytes)

Crown entity annual analysis – year to June 2025

To help measure progress on the Government’s contractor and consultant target, the Public Service Commission began collecting workforce data in 2023 for the baseline agencies that sit outside the core Public Service. That is Crown entities, Police, NZ Defence Force and the Māori Health Authority (before its disestablishment).  This data is presented in the ‘Crown Entity expenditure’ tab of the preceding visualisation. 

It shows that contractor and consultant expenditure across Crown entities, NZDF, and Police increased overall in 2024/25, but with very different results for OPEX and CAPEX. There was a total of $1,799 million contractor and consultant expenditure, up 12.5% from 2023/24 – OPEX was at $893 million for the year, down 29.9% from 2023/24, while CAPEX was at $906 million, up 174% from 2023/24.  

The baseline agencies include two of the three non-Public Service departments in the Executive branch (Police and the NZ Defence Force). If we include the third non-Public Service department, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, the total contractor and consultant expenditure for 2024/25 would be $1,802 million. 

Contractor and consultant guidance

Public Service contractor and consultant data for the 2017/18 year was the first to be published using our new guidance on how to report contractor and consultant expenditure. Before the new guidance, there was inconsistency in how organisations reported this expenditure. 

Contractors and Consultants Guidance (PDF, 642 KB)

The focus is on operating expenditure, as the large one-off investments that capital expenditure typically represents are likely to have a different mix of public servants and contractors/consultants and the resulting expenditure is likely to be volatile over time due to the fixed-term nature of these projects. 

Contractor and consultant expenditure definitions

Operating expenditure (OPEX) — this is the money spent for contractors and consultants that are not for the purpose of acquiring or developing assets. 

Capital expenditure (CAPEX) — this is the money spent to acquire resources to develop assets, tangible and intangible, through procurement of contractors and consultants. 

Total workforce spend — this is the sum of salary expenditure for permanent and fixed-term employees, and operational expenditure on contractors and consultants. 

The first release was for the 2017/2018 financial year and can be located here. 

The Commission uses Stats NZ’s Business Demography data to monitor the size and regional composition of the public sector. This data shows that the public sector employed around 462,300 people in 2023, 18.8% of New Zealand’s total workforce (2,464,300). The majority (88%) work in central government (407,200) and 12% in local government (55,100). 

The central government sector comprises all public sector employees, except those in local government. This includes the Public Service, health sector (including Health New Zealand employees), the education sector (including primary, area and secondary school staff and staff at tertiary education institutions), and Crown entities. 

Over the last 5 years, the overall public sector workforce increased by 15.0% (with central government up 15.3% and local government up 13.0%). This compares with an 9.0% growth in the private sector over the same period. 

The sector composition of workforce varies amongst the regions (see the interactive dashboard below). 

NZ workforce by sector(CSV, 132 KB)