Around 60,000 people were appointed to roles in the civil service last year, compared to nearly 100,000 in 2023-24.
The statistics are revealed in the Civil Service Commission’s 2024-25 annual report and accounts, which were published on Thursday.
The report details that 60,544 people were appointed to roles in the civil service in 2024-25, compared to 98,328 in 2023-4 – a 38% decrease.
It also notes that 74% of appointed through commissioner-chaired competitions candidates – which are required for roles at SCS2 level and above which are advertised externally – were existing civil servants, compared to 65% in 2023-24.
The figures come after this year’s Civil Service Statistics release, published in July, showed that the number of new entrants in 2024-25 was 44,310 – down from 63,330 in 2023-24.
The 2024-25 period includes the last three months of Rishi Sunak's administration and the first nine months of Starmer's government, during which time most departments have slowed their recruitment and sped up departures through voluntary exit schemes to reduce overall headcount.
Sharing her thoughts on the figures, Hannah Keenan, an associate director at the Institute for Government told CSW: "This is a really striking drop in appointments. With exit schemes either already up and running or on the horizon it seems departments are really clamping down on recruitment. That means there have been fewer moves between departments, but also fewer people joining the civil service from the outside – 2024-25 saw the largest year-on-year fall in entrants to the civil service in over a decade.
“There's a real risk that in trying to cut numbers the civil service becomes more insular, closing off entry routes to external talent – unfortunately it seems the first signs are appearing that this is already happening.”
Increased success rate for ethnic minority applicants – but not at SCS level
The report also shows that there has been an uptick in the success rate for ethnic minority applicants to roles in the civil service for roles below SCS2.
There were 60,353 people appointed to positions below SCS2 in 2024-25, with 56,083 of these appointments made through fair and open competition.
Where declared, 31% of people recruited through fair and open competition were from an ethnic minority group, up from 17% in 2023 to 2024.
Candidates from an ethnic minority background were most successful at grades EO and AO, making up 38.3% of EO recruits, and 36.3% of AO recruits – with the caveat again that both figures are where declared.
On the other hand, candidates from ethnic minority groups continued to have a low success rate for commissioner-chaired roles at the SCS2 grade and above.
Where declared, candidates from ethnic minority groups made up 23% of total applicants for commissioner-chaired roles, but made up 12% of shortlists and just 7% of appointable candidates.
This compares to 2023-24, when candidates from ethnic minority groups made up 27% of total applicants, 12% of shortlists and 9% of appointable candidates.
Keenan said the ethnic minority success-rate figures chime with the IfG's finding in its forthcoming Whitehall Monitor 2026 report “that while representation of minority ethnic staff in the civil service as a whole is increasing, representation in the senior civil service is not only well below the population benchmark but has been stalling for the past few years”.
“These figures from the Civil Service Commission underline the importance not just of increasing diversity in the civil service, but of opening up senior ranks as well, where the government clearly has further to go,” she added.
The report also highlights stats for candidates declaring a disability and for the balance in recruitment between men and women.
For roles below SCS2 level, where declared, 10% of people recruited through fair and open competition declared a disability, up from 7% in 2023-24. For commissioner-chaired roles, where declared, candidates who reported having a disability made up 9% of applicants, 7% of shortlists and 4% of appointable candidates.
For roles below SCS2 level, where declared, 52.3% of people recruited through fair and open competition were female and 43.8% were male. For commission-chaired roles, where declared, women made up 30% of applicants. There were more successful female candidates in later stages, making up 46% of shortlists and 41% of appointable candidates.
The report also notes that, of the 166 competitions chaired by commissioners in 2024-25 (down from 225 in 2023-24), 100 produced more than one appointable candidate (60%) and 12 competitions produced no appointable candidate (7%).