The quiet cuts

The Privy Council Office tallies 15,000 public service jobs eliminated last year.

The report quietly tabled in the House of Commons last Friday shows that overall, the government cut its total number of employees from 278,092 to 262,902 from March 31 last year to Dec. 31. Of those, 8,000 of the more than 15,000 jobs that were eliminated were for fulltime “indeterminate” positions, a reduction of about three per cent. The remaining roughly 7,000 positions that were eliminated were for students and casual, or term, employees, the report says.

The document, an annual report to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) on the public service, shows the students and casual employees, often women and younger members of the work force, took the biggest hit. Of about 5,300 student positions, the government cut nearly 1,100, a reduction of just over 20 per cent, the report says. Out of about 29,500 part-time positions, the government eliminated 5,550, a cut of just over 18 per cent.

See previously: The quiet cuts