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  "description": "Summarised by Centrist The latest public service workforce figures run counter to the idea that...",
  "path": "/still-little-sign-of-austerity-in-the-public-service/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-20T00:18:38.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Centrist",
    "pic.twitter.com/MIV86zwWAt",
    "March 16, 2026",
    "Read more over at X",
    "Receive our free newsletter here",
    "@NMowbray23"
  ],
  "textContent": "Summarised by Centrist\n\n**The latest public service workforce figures run counter to the idea that Wellington is going through anything like deep austerity.**\n\n**For voters being told the state has been hacked back to the bone, the figures suggest something more modest: a partial rollback after a major expansion, not a return to the leaner public service of the 1990s, 2000s or even most of the 2010s.**\n\n> The difference between government and the private sector in one video.\n>\n> MBIE has 9,000 sqm opposite our NZ office, and we often look across at an almost empty office. This was 9am on a Wednesday.\n>\n> The wasted office space and rent alone is crazy. I’d bet they could operate in a… pic.twitter.com/MIV86zwWAt\n>\n> — NickMowbray (@NMowbray23) March 16, 2026\n\nHeadcount has come off its recent peak, but the state bureaucracy remains far larger than it was for most of the past three decades.\n\nA chart shared by Charted Daily, using Public Service Commission data, shows full-time equivalent staff numbers sitting at 63,657 in late 2025. That is down from a peak of 65,699 reached in 2024, but still far above the levels seen before the post-2017 expansion.\n\nThe public service workforce fell from 35,829 in 1993 to a low of 29,020 around 2000. It then climbed steadily through the 2000s and 2010s before rising sharply in the Ardern era.\n\nBy 2020, it had moved above 50,000. By 2021, it was above 60,000. Even after the recent pullback, staffing remains near historic highs.\n\nThe drop from 65,699 to 63,657 is just over 2,000 full-time equivalent roles, a reduction of roughly 3%. In historical terms, it still leaves the public service far larger than it was for most of the modern era.\n\nRead more over at X\n\nReceive our free newsletter here",
  "title": "Still little sign of ‘austerity’ in the public service",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-20T02:51:28.125Z"
}