A drop in the number of full-time civil servants over the past year has been almost entirely offset by a rise in part-timers, according to new figures.
The latest data sets on the civil service workforce were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week. They show that while the number of full-time officials fell by 4,966 between March 2014 and March 2015, there was an increase of 4,377 in the number of part-time staff.
There are now 327,696 full-timers and 111,627 working part-time.
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Overall, the civil service workforce shrank by 0.1% over the period. The figures also show that the civil service is continuing to cut administrative roles, with nearly half (49%) of all those leaving the service over the period working at administrative level.
Employment at senior civil service (SCS) level increased by 84 (1.7%), while the number of civil servants at grades 6 and 7 rose by 4.6%. The number of officials at senior and higher executive officer level also rose by 1.5%.
PAY
The ONS also records a rise in median salaries of 1% over the period, with the median salary for civil servants now standing at £24,980. While that figure is in line with the 1% public sector payrise cap imposed by the Treasury, the ONS notes that the the fall in the number of civil servants at the lowest grades will have had an impact on median pay.
The stats office said: "The increase in median pay should be considered alongside the compositional impact on the make-up of the civil service workforce by responsibility level, whereby the number of employees working at the Administrative level decreased by over 10,000, while there were increases in employment for the senior civil service level, grades 6 and 7, and senior executive and higher executive officers."
PCS – the largest of the civil service unions with more than 200,000 public sector members – said the change in the shape of the workforce "artificially inflates median pay", and accused the government of "making the lowest paid in the civil service and wider society bear the brunt" of public spending cuts.
"The scale of this will fundamentally change our society for the worse and is being done through political choice, not economic necessity," said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
DIVERSITY
Ministers meanwhile hailed progress on a number of fronts in the civil service's battle to become more diverse.
According to the ONS, there was a 1% year-on-year rise in the proportion of women working at SCS level, with 38.7% of the senior grades now made up of female staff. That represents a rise of almost 6% on 2009 levels.
There was also movement at Grade 6 and 7 levels, where 43.6% of civil servants are women – up from 39.4% in 2009.
There remains a sizeable overall gap between what male and female officials earn, although the gender pay gap has fallen from 13.6% last year to 12.8% this year. The gap is smallest at administrative officer level ܺ– where it it stands at 0.5% – and highest at SCS level, where the gap is 4.9%.
There was a slight uptick in the proportion of ethnic minority civil servants, with 10.6% of civil servants who declared their ethnicity now coming from an ethnic minority background. That represented an increase of 0.5% on the 2014 figures.
However, there was a 0.2% dip in ethnic minority representation at SCS level, with 7.1% of the most senior officials coming from an ethnic minority.
As of March this year, 8.9% of civil servants declaring their disability status were disabled, which represents a 0.1% increase on the previous year.
Responding to the figures, Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock said the civil service was "making progress in reflecting the modern Britain it serves".
He added: "We need a truly representative civil service that reflects modern Britain, where nobody is held back by the circumstances of their birth.
"Equal opportunities in the Civil Service are not just important in its role as an employer, but also in the development of policy and in the delivery of more effective and efficient public services. "But the figures also show there is more to do to fulfil our determination to have a civil service that is truly equal."