Efforts by the government to reduce expenditure on public employees last year has seen a decrease in staff of 2.7% year-on-year as the Civil Service tried to slim down, according to the Directorate General of Administration and Public Employment.
The statistics to December 31, 2014, show employment in the public service stood at 655,620 jobs.
The reduction is almost entirely explained by the departure of employees from central government posts where 12,506 people left. The other job losses are divided between municipalities and Portugal’s autonomous regions.
However the directorate admits that 14,953 of the 18,474 were due to retirement and the non-replacement of staff, rather than the sackings that Portugal's lenders and much of its public have been expecting.
The Ministry of Education has contributed more than half of the decrease of jobs in the central administration between 2011 and 2014 as 29,393 jobs have gone to leave a total headcount of 53,933. The second ministry to lose staff was National Defence where 4,783 have left.
This result cannot be viewed as anything less than poor with the state still accounting for the employment of 12% of the working population.
