About 90 per cent of federal public service cuts targeted permanent positions

The Parliamentary Budget Officer released an online tracker Tuesday showing that about 90 per cent of federal public service job cuts over the past year eliminated permanent positions—a significant shift from the previous fiscal year, when cuts targeted term employees, casual workers and students.

Between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026, the public service shed 9,505 employees. Of those, 8,483 were permanent employees, translating to about 9,000 fewer full-time equivalents.

The PBO, an independent financial and economic analysis body serving House of Commons and Senate members, created the tracker to provide more frequent employment data than Treasury Board typically releases. Treasury Board publishes public service employment figures once a year; the PBO will update its tracker every quarter moving forward.

Annette Ryan, the PBO, said the monthly data will help her office understand how an early retirement incentive influenced overall employment levels. "Parliamentarians need reliable and readily available information in order to review changes in government employment levels in order to question Ministers about what that means for public services to Canadians," Ryan said in a statement.

The cuts have been unevenly distributed. Employment and Social Development Canada cut 3,221 workers—about 8 per cent of its overall headcount—while the Department of National Defence grew by about 3,200 employees in the same period.

These reductions are part of the government's broader fiscal plan to find $60 billion in savings over five years from the operational budgets of most departments and agencies.