Public sector headcount increased 3.1% in 2018

| 05/08/2019 | 26 Comments
Cayman News Service
Government Administration Building

(CNS): The number of public sector workers across core government as well as the statutory authorities and government companies (SAGC) increased to 6,429 by the end of last year. According to the government human resources report for 2018, which was presented to the Legislative Assembly last month, over the last few years there has been a steady growth in the number of employees at public authorities as well as core government, where the number of civil servants increased by 3.7% to 3,918.

Officials said the rise in civil servant numbers had been driven largely by an increase in teachers and support staff at the education department, police and prison officers, as well as priority policy areas for the government. Meanwhile, staff numbers grew across the SAGCs to 2,511 in December, with the Health Services Authority and the Cayman Islands Airports Authority recording some of the biggest increases in headcount.

While over 72% of core government employees are Caymanians, 75% of the staff at the SAGCs are local staff. Several government departments are made up of well over 90% Caymanians, with the fire service at 100% and immigration at 99.5%.

When it comes to gender, women now make up 55% of the public sector, which is starting to be reflected at the top; at the end of 2018 more than half the chief officers and 49% of department heads were women. In addition, 54% of promotions last year were for women and 55% of the highest earners in the service are women.

On average, women in government earn $49,872 per year, while their male peers earn on average just under $500 per year less, at $49, 391. However the majority of government workers, almost 58%, earn less than $49,000 per year. But all government workers enjoyed a pay increase in 2018 when they received a cost of living increase of 5% in June 2018. However, less than half of all civil servants believe their pay reflects what they deserve.

Meanwhile, the increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65 in 2016 is beginning to have an impact on the age demographics, as there are now some 320 government workers over the age of 60.

See related story: Acting DG defends HR policy in CS

See the full report in the CNS Library


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Category: Government Administration, Politics

Comments (26)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The good ones are worked half to death, while the lazy bad ones are getting paid for doing very little , sad but thats the truth

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  2. Say it like it is says:

    It is profoundly disturbing that the CIAA which boasts the highest average annual salaries by far in Government (and likely in the private sector as well), has also managed to be at the top of the league in increased headcount. What on earth is their annual salary bill?.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    8:24. What island or planet are you living on? Stop talking rubbish.

    This marginal increase is am amazing achievement giving the dramatic rise in population. How was this achieved when we need more police fire and teachers to deal with the rapid development?

    Stop being jealous of our civil service it is becoming the envy of the world.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The envy of the world? On a per capita basis for a place with 65,000 people, we must have the largest per capita civil service in the world for a non socialist state.

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      • Anonymous says:

        ….. why say something you know absolutely nothing about.

        With your population number of 65k that puts us at <10% public sector.
        "In the OECD-countries, the average public sector employment rate was 21.3%"
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_sector
        Find a country on that list with <10% that you want our country to be like for me.

        If you want to argue about quality of service, efficiency, or transparency of CIG those might be good conversations.

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        • Anonymous says:

          9:02 I think you’ll find the percentage you quote relates to the permanent population. Over 50% of the workforce here are transients so that pushes it up to around the 20% mark.

          As for how that percentage compares? In the UK it’s 16.5% but in addition to the civil service they have huge public sector organisations like the NHS, the armed forces and local government (parish, borough, town and county councils) plus the infrastructure for the benefits system. In addition the UK can draw on a whole raft of taxation including things like 20% VAT, income tax and national insurance contributions to fund it. You are not comparing like for like. If we had direct taxation the CIG figures, and the dead wood they include, might make sense but we don’t.

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        • Anonymous says:

          At least try to answer your phones

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        • Say it like it is says:

          9.02 read 11.03’s informed response.I’m afraid your ignorance is bliss. I still remember when we had a poll tax, but that was abandoned along with payments for garbage collection as it was far too “complicated ” for the civil service to administer. Can you imagine them attempting to deal with all the complexities of the E.U governments- they can’t even collect our garbage!.

      • Anonymous says:

        More like 89,000. Don’t laugh.

    • God save us says:

      9.59 I am constantly awestruck by comments like this from a civil servant who clearly is in denial of the truth as are so many of his cohorts. To say it is “becoming the envy of the world” and other fantasy comments such as “world class” is sheer nonsense and could not be further from reality.

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    • Anonymous says:

      keep drinking the kool-aid.
      numerous independednt reports on the performance of the civil service prove you wrong.

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      • Say it like it is says:

        8.56am Are you suggesting all the hundreds of complaints aired on this website are fantasy?. List your “independent” reports.

    • Anonymous says:

      So I called one of the ministries. The phones rang and rang and rang, until it rang off into a dial tone. So I called again. Same result. So I called again. Same result. Finally, on the fourth attempt, someone picked up … and immediately hung up the receiver, without even a “hello.” Envy of the world? You’re delusional.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    But yet 3 windows at immigration/dvdl are ever open. Don’t forget one will take a break as slow as possible and the others will yap on the phone.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    CNS, how do they know people are Caymanian? From what I have read, there is no central record, and being born here or having a Cayman Passport means nothing. Perhaps a question for Auntie?

    CNS: I’ve passed it on.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    more wonderland stuff.
    we need a bigger trough

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  7. Anonymous says:

    These days plenty Civic Servants don’t show up for work 5 days a week, and plenty are always late, then they leave work 1 hour later and go to the shops to eat, they do little work, so Government hires 3 people to do one person job, thats why its so many Civil Servants these days

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    • Anonymous says:

      Have you actually worked in CIG? How do you know that they are behaving this way or is this just your perception?

      I worked for CIG for awhile and the majority of people were working overtime and some were doing ridiculous hours to the point of making themselves sick due to stress and not enough downtime.

      Don’t paint all with the same stick or make assumptions that they are mostly lazy in there! There are some amazing civil servants working for CIG, both Caymanian and Expat. As with everywhere you get some amazing staff and some not so amazing. But the majority are fantastic and don’t deserve this criticism.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The persons who are posting negative comments are simply not keeping up to speed with what’s happening in the civil service or is denial.

        Any organisation that has a 90% customer service satisfaction rating, 70% staff engagement. 100% clean accounts. Wellness programmes. Online services and I could on. Is clearly doing exceptionally well.

        Congrats CIG Some us see the major improvements.

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        • The Truth says:

          12.07pm Have you seen the comments from your very own about the appallingly low performance standards inside your Trump Tower. Your customer service rating must be generated from your own staff, try calling any department, the phone is never answered, voice mail is never returned. Many Department accounts have still not been filed, some of those that have are qualified. A lot of government websites are hopeless as they are never updated. For starters, stop all govt employees from running their private businesses in govt time.

      • Anonymous says:

        9:51 am, i see them at the shops deli at 9 – 9:30 eating with their uniforms on in the Brac

      • Anonymous says:

        9:51am, you are right, there are some hard working Civil Servants , and some even put in extra hour or 2 per day without any over time pay, they are the good ones. But there are more lazy ones that never come in on time and does very little work and has lots of sick days, the hard working ones had to take up their slack, and its hard or never can get rid of the lazy ones.

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