Public Service sheds 112 jobs in first quarter

ANOTHER slide in the number of Australian Public Service jobs in Tasmania has been slammed by the Federal Opposition.

A response from the Australian Public Service Commission to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 showed there had been more than 100 APS jobs lost in the state between December last year and March this year.

There were 3693 APS employees engaged in Tasmania at December 31, but this had fallen to 3581 three months later — a loss of 112 jobs.

Labor said this meant more than 500 APS jobs had disappeared since 2013.

“Scott Morrison and the

Tasmanian federal Liberals must rule out more APS job cuts in Tasmania in the midst of the first recession in three decades,’’ Franklin Labor MP Julie Collins said. “The latest APS job cuts are a threat to Tasmania’s fragile economy, and the recent announcement of more job losses at the CSIRO and the ABC will only make a bad situation worse.”

In its response to the Senate committee, the Australian Public Service Commission said 141 employees began work in the APS in Tasmania between January 1 and March 31.

The commission said at March 31, of the 3581 APS employees in Tasmania, 3126 were employed on an ongoing basis, 242 non-ongoing and 213 were casual.

An APSC spokeswoman told the Mercury that changes in the headcount of APS employees could occur for many reasons, including business and government requirements and demand.

“Individual agencies are responsible for managing their staffing levels,” she said.

“Overall, the reduction in federal public service jobs in Tasmania is broadly in line with reductions across the whole of APS.”

The spokeswoman said across the country, there were 144,704 APS employees at December 31 last year, a reduction of a 1.4 per cent from 12 months earlier. The figures excluded labour hire contractors and consultants employed by a third party, she said.