Part-time employees
The graph below shows the percentage of Public Service staff in part-time work between 2021 and 2026. A part-time job is defined as someone working less than 0.75 of a full-time equivalent position.
Over these 5 years, the percentage of part-time workers has continued a downwards trend, falling to 3.1% in 2026 from 4.0% in 2021. The percentage of part-time workers in the Public Service peaked at 9.0% in 2004. The wider labour market does not show the same decline over the last 5 years, with figures from Stats NZ’s Household Labour Force Survey showing a consistent proportion of about 20% of part-time workers (20.3% in the year to June 2026).
On average, Public Service part-time workers are paid 9.5% less than full-time workers on a full-time equivalent basis (as at 30 June 2026). This gap has been decreasing steadily over the last 20 years and is now less than half of what it was at its peak in 2004, at 25.7%.
The use of part-time employment as a flexible working option can be better understood by analysing the demographic profile of people who work part-time, as well as other factors (for example, their occupation and the type of employment agreement). These factors are explored in the visualisation below.
Part-Time Use in the Public Service
When viewed by age group, the visualisation above shows that part-time work is more common in younger staff (possibly in conjunction with study), during the ages when caring for children is more likely, and after reaching retirement age.
Part-time work is more prevalent in social, health and education workers, contact centre workers and clerical and administrative occupations (although occupational differences have lessened over time). Part-time work is considerably more likely to be taken up by females, and to a lesser extent those of another gender, than males. Occupations with high proportions of male staff (for example, ICT professionals and technicians) are less likely to be working part-time.
A higher proportion of fixed-term employment agreements are for part-time work compared to permanent employment agreements. As covered below, the proportion of fixed term public service roles has decreased over the past few years, which is likely contributing to the fall in the proportion of part-time workers.
Employment type: permanent and fixed-term
Fixed term employees are employed on a full-time or part-time basis for a specified period, project or event. The visualisation shows the number of Public Service employees on fixed term employment agreements for the years 2021 to 2026.
As at 30 June 2026, 95.4% of Public Service employees were on permanent employment agreements and 4.6% were on fixed-term agreements. This proportion is unchanged from 2025 and remains the lowest level recorded since current records began in 2000. In recent years, some agencies have reported making fiscal savings by the non-renewal of fixed term roles at the conclusion of fixed term work.
The five organisations with the highest proportion of staff on fixed-term employment contracts were:
- Ministry of Defence (45.2%)
- Ministry for Women (26.7%)
- Ethnic Communities (25.5%)
- Public Service Commission (23.9%)
- Ministry for Environment (17.5%)
Secondments
As at 30 June 2026, there were 171 Public Service employees on secondment to another Public Service agency, unchanged from 2025. Secondments have generally increased since the Workforce Data collection began in 2000, reaching a peak of 407 in 2021 during the COVID-19 response. Since then, they have declined, with 2025 and 2026 levels similar to those seen in 2013 and 2014.
Secondments accounted for 0.3% of the Public Service workforce in 2026, the same proportion recorded in 2024 and 2025, and down from the high of 0.6% in 2021 and 2022.
Following a COVID-19-influenced peak of 95 secondments in leadership and management positions in 2022, numbers have generally trended downwards, before increasing again to 33 in 2026. Despite this increase, numbers remain below pre-COVID-19 levels.
Note - the figures in this section only represent secondments between departments as opposed to secondments within departments.
Working from home
Public Service departments and departmental agencies were surveyed in June/July 2025 about working from home arrangements for their staff. This was the second such survey, following a collection in November 2024.
The data covers all employees and reinforces last year’s findings on working from home arrangements across the Public Service.
The July 2025 results show that agency-level practices have shifted as agencies have given effect to new guidance on flexible working. This has resulted in a slight decrease in the overall system-level frequency of working from home since November 2024, and a number of changes at an agency level.
Survey results indicate that:
- Averaged across all public servants, the number of days typically worked from home is 0.85 days per week, a slight decrease from 0.89 days per week in November 2024.
- 55% of public servants do not typically work from home, or only do so infrequently. This is unchanged from the November 2024 data collection.
- 42% of public servants typically work from home at least one day a week, a slight decrease from 43% in November 2024. Also shown is a small shift to people working fewer days from home:
- 8.5% worked 3 or more days from home, down from 9.9% in November
- 33.3% worked 1 or 2 days from home, up from 32.8%.
- The most common day on which to work from home is a Friday, with 21% of public servants typically working from home on a Friday. Tuesday and Wednesday are jointly the least common days for public servants to work from home, with 15% of public servants typically working from home on each day.
Stats NZ also produces data that provides insights into working from home practices for other parts of the economy. Stats NZ Household Labour Force Survey for the June 2025 quarter reported that about a third (34%) of employed people worked some or all of their time at home, which is almost unchanged since June 2022.
For the Commission’s guidance on flexible working (work from home) see:
Impacts of working from home: Insights from the Public Service Census 2025
Impact on the productivity of teams
In Public Service Census 2025, most managers felt that their team’s ability to work some days from home either increased productivity in their team (49% of managers) or had no impact (42%).
Those managers who themselves worked some days from home were more likely to say the ability to work from home benefits their team’s productivity (57% said it increases productivity, 39% no impact, 4% decreases productivity), compared to managers who don’t work from home (36% increases productivity, 47% no impact, 18% decreases productivity). This was broadly similar regardless of the manager’s gender, age, or caring responsibilities.
All respondents (managers and non-managers) were asked about the success of their team at achieving their objectives over the previous 12 months. A higher proportion of people who worked some days from home said their teams were extremely/very successful (64%) compared to those who did not work from home at all (58%).
Impact on staff
At an individual level, public servants who work some days from home are more likely to be satisfied with their work/life balance (59% satisfied vs 50% for those who don’t work from home) and with their non-monetary employment conditions (70% satisfied vs 50% for those who don’t work from home). Public servants who work some days from home are less likely to report experiencing work stress always or often (43% vs 46%).
Overall job satisfaction was slightly lower for those who work from home (62% satisfied vs 63% for those who don’t work from home), but women who had caring responsibilities had slightly higher job satisfaction if they could work from home (64% satisfied compared to 63% for those who don’t work from home).
Other forms of flexible work
Based on the Public Service Census 2025, 65% of public servants use some form of flexible work arrangement. Potential flexible work options include flexible start and finish times, job-sharing, flexi-leave, working compressed hours, as well as working from home as discussed above.