The federal government’s workforce is contracting and so is the line of people hoping to join it.
Between April 2025 and March 2026, applications for federal public service jobs fell to just under 735,000, a drop of nearly 30 percent from the more than one million received two years prior. The decline reflects both a cooling of public interest in government careers and a deliberate pullback by Ottawa on hiring activity.
The government posted nearly 40 percent fewer job listings over the same period, a sign that departments have been told to hold back. Meanwhile, the number of employees leaving the public service through retirement, resignation, or other departures climbed 12 percent. Promotions within the service cratered by roughly half compared to the previous year, underscoring just how frozen internal movement has become.
The Liberal government’s 2025 federal budget set out a clear target: reduce the public service headcount by approximately 40,000 positions by April 2029, measured against a 2024 peak of nearly 368,000 employees. Progress is already underway.
Treasury Board figures show the federal workforce stood at 357,965 at the end of March 2025. By March 2026, that number had fallen to 345,282 a reduction of more than 12,600 people in a single year. About half of those lost positions were casual, student, or term roles, with the remainder being permanent staff.
One of the government’s main tools for reducing headcount without mass layoffs is a voluntary early retirement program launched in December 2024. Letters were sent to roughly 68,000 public servants who may qualify, offering them the ability to retire immediately with a full pension based on years of service and no penalty for leaving before the standard age.
To be eligible, employees must be at least 50 years old, have a minimum of 10 years of service, and hold at least two years of pensionable employment.
As of July 7, just over 8,200 applications had been submitted. The window to apply remains open until July 24.
Rola Salem, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, described participation as encouraging, though she noted the government “does not have a specific target for the number of eligible public servants who may take advantage of this incentive.”
“The decision to retire from the public service is a personal decision,” she added.
The federal pullback comes as Canada’s overall jobs picture holds relatively steady. Statistics Canada reported Friday that employers across the country added 18,000 jobs in June, largely in part-time and private sector roles. That nudged the national unemployment rate down a tenth of a percentage point to 6.5 percent returning it to where it sat at the start of the year.
Whether the federal government’s workforce reduction stays on track with its 2029 target will depend heavily on how many eligible employees take the retirement offer in the coming weeks, and how aggressively departments continue to manage attrition in the months ahead.
