Annual Number of New Permanent Hires from External Recruitment, Contract Hires and Contract Staff to Permanent Emplacement in Public Service

Parliament Sitting: 24 Sep 2025

Mr Low Wu Yang Andre: To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for each of the last five years, what is the annual number of new hires in the Civil Service and statutory boards who are (i) permanent hires from external recruitment (ii) contract hires and (iii) contract staff converted to permanent emplacement, respectively

Written Reply by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Coordinating Minister for Public Services and Minister-in-charge of the Public Service

Contract appointments are offered by Public Service agencies for roles on specific projects over a specific period, or as a means to assess officers’ suitability for a long-term career in the Public Service before offering them permanent appointments. This approach has benefits to the agencies and the officers. Both sides can assess the officers’ fit for the job. Majority of our new hires are offered a contract appointment. Some agencies may offer permanent appointments for certain roles, such as those that require recruits to attend training over an extended period, for example those in the education or Home Team uniformed services. Nevertheless, these officers are also generally required to serve a probation period of at least 1 year before they are confirmed in their jobs.

Between 2020 and 2024, the Public Service recruited about 14,000 officers a year. About 76% of these appointments were on contract-of-service. Of the new recruits appointed into the Civil Service on contract-of-service in 2020 and 2021, about 45% have been emplaced. 28% exited within 2 years of their appointment, and remainder could be (i) considered for emplacement later; (ii) exited or (iii) appointed to projects that had a finite tenure. The Public Service Division does not have data on the proportion of emplaced officers in Statutory Boards.