Govt employee count rises for first time since FY19, spending per head also on the up

Employee strength rises for first time post 2019

The Centre reversed a five-year downsizing trend in FY24, expanding its workforce to 3.56 million, a Moneycontrol analysis of Budget documents shows.

The number of employees working for the Union government fell to its lowest in nearly a decade at 3.17 million in FY23, capping a consistent drop since FY19, when staff strength was at 3.27 million.

The employee numbers hit a peak of 3.33 million in FY14, Budget documents show.

A look at the numbers provided in Budget documents also shows that the senior-to-junior employee ratio may have also worsened during these years.

The expansion comes with a twist. Average pay per employee is expected to decline in FY24, as the government inducts more young workers, but rise again in FY25.

The government is expected to have spent Rs 8.12 lakh per employee on pay and allowances other than travel expenses in FY24, a 4.4 percent drop from Rs 8.49 lakh in the previous year. Employee costs jumped 8.3 percent in the FY23.

The average employee salary increased at an annual pace of 6.5 percent between FY16 and FY23, even as the number of employees declined between the two periods. In FY16, the average employee compensation despite a 34 percent jump from the previous year was Rs 5.44 lakh.

A comparison with inflation also indicates that jobs at the higher level would have been filled faster than the ones at the lower level.

Budget numbers indicate that number of central government employees will decline again to 3.51 million by FY25, but the average pay will rise to Rs 9 lakh per annum.