The data we collect gives us information about part-time, permanent and fixed-term public servants, as well as secondments and hours contracted versus hours worked.

Part-time employees

The graph below shows the percentage of Public Service staff in part-time work between 2013 and 2023 — a part-time job is defined as someone working less than 0.75 of a full-time equivalent position.

Over this period, despite legislative reforms that widened access to flexible working arrangements, the percentage of part-time workers has continually trended downwards (from 6.7% in 2013 to 3.7% in 2023). Figures from Stats NZ’s Household Labour Force Survey shows there’s also a downward trend in the wider labour market (from 22.2% in the year to June 2013 to 19.5% in the year to June 2023).

On average, part-time workers are paid 10.9% less than full-time workers on a full-time equivalent basis (as at 30 June 2023), although this gap has been decreasing steadily over time and is now half of what it was ten years ago (21.7% in 2013).

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(XLSX, 541 KB)

The visualisation above shows that part-time work is high in early career (possibly in conjunction with study), during the ages when caring for children is more likely, and near retirement age.  Part-time work is considerably more likely to be taken up by females than males.

Part-time work is more prevalent in some occupational groups, with the highest proportions in social, health and education workers, clerical and administrative workers and contact centre workers. These are also the occupations with the highest proportions of female staff. Occupations that are male dominated (for example, ICT professionals and technicians) are less likely to be worked part-time.

A higher proportion of fixed-term employment agreements are for part-time work compared to permanent employment agreements.

Employment type: permanent and fixed-term

Fixed-term employees are employed on a full-time or part-time basis for a specified period of a project or event. The visualisation shows the number of Public Service employees on fixed-term employment agreements for the years 2018–2023.

At 30 June 2023, 93.6% of Public Service employees were on permanent employment contracts with the remaining 6.4% of employees on fixed-term contracts. This is down from 7.8% last year and is the lowest proportion of employees on fixed-term contracts since current records began in 2000. Contributing to this decline is the continued winding down of COVID-related roles (e.g., the ending of fixed-term assistant customs officer roles who had been implementing the COVID-related Maritime Border Order).

The five organisations with the highest proportion of staff on fixed-term employment contracts were:

  • Ministry of Defence (37.1%)
  • Ministry for Women (37.0%)
  • Ministry for Pacific Peoples (21.7%)
  • Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (19.6%)
  • Department of Internal Affairs (19.2%)

Employment Type(XLSX, 11 KB)

Secondments

There were 323 Public Service employees on secondment to another Public Service agency as at 30 June 2023. This is down from the levels seen in 2021 and 2022 but remains high. Secondments have trended upwards since the Workforce Data collection started in 2000, both in terms of numbers of secondments and as a proportion of the workforce – 0.5% in 2023. Note - secondments within departments are not included in these figures.

The number of secondments in leadership and management positions decreased to 68 as of 30 June 2023, from 95 in 2022.

Secondments(XLSX, 11 KB)

Hours contracted versus hours worked

In Te Taunaki Public Service Census 2021 participants worked on average 41.1 hours per week against a contracted rate of 38.1 hours, leading to an overall gap of 3 hours.