Civil Service Establishment

To facilitate the delivery of new policy initiatives and improved services to the public, the annual growth of the civil service establishment had been mostly in the range of 1% to 1.9% between 2007-08 and 2020-21, except for 2018-19 and 2020-21 with a year-on-year increase of 3.7% and 3.2% respectively. 

The civil service establishment recorded zero growth in 2021-22.  The Government's target of zero growth in the civil service establishment will remain unchanged in 2022-23, with the aim of ensuring the sustainability of public finances.  The projected civil service establishment by end-March 2023 will be about 197 000 posts.  We encourage bureaux and departments to enhance effectiveness and efficiency through re-prioritisation, internal redeployment and streamlining of work processes, so that the workload can be coped with even without increase in civil service establishment. (Latest Civil Service Personnel Statistics)