Often talked about – but what are the facts…

I will be looking at full time equivalents (FTE); seasonally adjusted (SA) all readily available from ONS.

Observations:

• Public sector employment is still high even during the conservatives
• Central government has increased mostly due to NHS staff increases
• Local services has been decreased mostly due to cuts in social and health services
• NHS staff has increased also during conservative government
• Social services has been cut during conservative government
• HM Forces being reduced. Only increase was during labour
• Administrations is being cut during conservative government

Governments since:

• 1979: Conservative
• 1997: Labour
• 2010: Conservative

Total Public Sector

Looking at the numbers below it does not add up:

2,602,000 + 1,610,000 = 4,212,000 so missing 285,000 FTE’s somewhere to get 4,497,000

Labour was in power from 1997 to 2010, which may explain the rising slope from 1999 to 2008.

The big jump in 2008 was due to bank nationalisations during the 2008 crisis.

Still in 2017 the public sector employment is high even during a conservative government.

Seems like austerity only applies to the private sector.

Central government

Increasing even with a conservative government.

Local government

Local services has been cut during the conservative government.

Public Administration

Administration has been reduced during the conservative government.

NHS

NHS staff has significantly increased since 1999 during both governments.

Hiring was very high during the 2008 crisis, which may have worsened the deficit.

Health and Social

May explain cuts to social and mental services and reduction in local government.

HM Forces

HM Forces has been continuously being reduced during both governments.

Only increases has been during labour governments.

Education

Massive cut in 2012 but still higher than in early labour days.

Police

Been cut during conservative government and still falling.

Civil Service

Been falling since 2005 during both governments.

Other

This clearly shows the nationalised businesses and the selling of Royal Mail in 2013.