Australia / Queensland / Cuts in public service jobs reaches 14,000

WITH a month to go until the end of the financial year, the Newman Government has achieved its goal to reduce the public service by 14,000.

A Public Service Commission spokeswoman said yesterday that 10,032 offers of redundancy had been made since July, and 9189 employees had accepted.

“Almost 400 of those employees are still considering their redundancy offers, most of them at Queensland Health,” she said.

“As the Premier advised the Queensland Media Club this month, the Queensland public service has now reduced by about 14,000 full-time equivalents.

“Some of this has been achieved through redundancies and some by natural attrition.”

Several thousand temporary workers whose contracts expired on June 30 last year were also part of the cull.

Another 310 employees had sought and been given jobs back in the public service and 120 were “awaiting placement”, the spokeswoman said.

The cost-cutting exercise has meant the government workforce shrinking to 193,683 full-time equivalents, from 205,331 last June.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Premier Campbell Newman’s public service jobs cull reaches its target of 14,000 | The Courier-Mail.