State services lose 1500 jobs in a year

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Nearly 900 public servants have been forced to take redundancy and a further 670 jobs have disappeared since the Government embarked on its belt-tightening drive.

The Health Ministry confirmed yesterday it was axing 130 jobs as new figures revealed the extent of job losses within the public service.

Nearly 1500 jobs have gone since December 2008, with the Health Ministry among the hardest hit. Before yesterday's announcement, its numbers had already been trimmed by 200.

Inland Revenue has taken the biggest hit, with nearly 500 jobs disappearing in the past 12 months.

But the figures reveal the public service is also struggling to fill new "frontline" positions under its promise to shift money from the "back office" to workers at the coal face – 540 new frontline jobs were created at agencies including Child, Youth and Family and Corrections, but they were outnumbered by 629 vacancies.

State Services Minister Tony Ryall said National had campaigned to cap the size of the bureaucracy and it had done that. He blamed "rampant" growth in the public service during the previous nine years for the need for cuts, after it grew at a rate of 1800 jobs a year during that period.

But Labour health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said the latest cutbacks at the ministry would affect frontline services. While it cut numbers at the ministry, the Government was poised to hire potentially hundreds more consultants and contract staff for its new National Health Board, which would occupy the same building. "While the minister has been busy building his Wellington fiefdom, almost every district health board in the country has been cutting services to patients and communities."

The Public Service Association said 809 staff had been laid off, 565 more jobs were taken off the books and 106 staff left without being replaced under the Government's belt-tightening drive.

Its own monitoring showed a further 1000 jobs had been axed in the wider state sector since last year. The union was concerned about the impact on service to the public.

Top Ten Jobs shed by government agencies during restructuring in the year to December 31:

Inland Revenue Department 467

Health Ministry 201

Social Development Ministry 201

DOC 104

State Services Commission 89

Te Puni Kokiri 75

Agriculture, Forestry Ministry 64

Education Ministry 46

Fisheries Ministry 44

Statistics New Zealand 43

- © Fairfax NZ News