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The civil service in Whitehall has taken the biggest hit when it comes to job losses, according to figures compiled by the Institute for Government.  According to the think tank, figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows the number of job losses in Whitehall in the past quarter was 10.9% compared to a public sector average of 4.3% in the same period.

“The latest figures show a continuing trend of reductions in Whitehall since the Spending Review. Whilst other areas of the public sector and local government have seen bigger reductions in absolute terms, as a proportion, Whitehall has taken a bigger ‘hit’. Whitehall has reduced by nearly 11% since the Spending Review. In comparison, Local Government has reduced by 6.7% over the same period and the public sector by 4.3%,” Justine Stephen, Researcher at the Institute for Government said.

The analysis published in Whitehall Monitor #9 shows that there are also big variations between departments, with BIS, Defra and DfT seeing the sharpest reductions. At BIS, nearly a quarter of posts have been cut since the Spending Review. The BIS has led the way by reducing its core operations by 23.4% followed by Defra at almost 19% and DfT by 17.4%.

DECC is the only part of Whitehall to see an increase in Full Time Equivalent  posts (FTE) since the Spending Review, increasing its full-time head-count by 70 (although this is in keeping with their response to the Spending Review).  Whitehall had reduced its staff by over 5,000 FTE (full time equivalent) since the spending review.  

In non core Whitehall departments such as the Cabinet Office the reduction in FTE has been around 30% but this was primarily due to the job losses in the Central Office of Information.  However the single largest number of FTE losses was reported by the DWP where almost 12,000 positions have gone and over 10,000 are from Job Centre Plus and other quangos.

“However, as our analysis shows, there is significant variation in the rates of reductions within Whitehall with some departments reducing by more than 20%. We would anticipate that there may also be variation within the levels of reductions individual Local Authorities have experienced,” Stephen added.