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. 

It is of utmost importance to maintain the sustainbility of public finance amidst the economic downturn.  Therefore, in 2021-22, we will have zero growth in the civil service establishment in order to contain the growth in establishment expenditure.  The projected civil service establishment by end-March 2022 will be 197 646 posts.  We have encouraged 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)