The reduction in the number of civil servants will not happen immediately. Unveiled this Wednesday, the finance bill for 2024 specifies in particular the expected job creations in the public service next year. While the State is called upon to cut its spending, numerous recruitments are planned.
The draft budget provides for the creation of 6,695 full-time equivalents on the State side, and 1,578 among State operators, for a total of 8,273 FTEs. An important figure, although below the 10,790 creations planned in the initial finance law of 2023 – including 8,960 within the State alone. State workforce should therefore increase, reaching 1.987 million full-time equivalents, according to the project shared by Bercy.
In detail, on the State side, three quarters of creations are concentrated in three sovereign ministries: Interior and Overseas, Justice and National Education. Taking into account State operators, the top podium is made up of the same first two, followed by Higher Education and Research. The job cuts are, in reality, tiny, concentrated on the side of official publications and administrative information.
These creations are assumed by the executive, which defends its orientations. The security forces will thus be able to benefit from new positions, to “strengthen the services whose activity constitutes a challenge for the Ministry of the Interior”. “The State has reversed the dynamic of decline in public services and strengthened its presence in the territories,” also assures the draft budget.
The dynamic could also continue, with certain plans – such as the orientation and programming law of the Ministry of the Interior, LOPMI – providing for creations in the years to come. If Emmanuel Macron promised, in 2017, to eliminate 120,000 civil servant positions, this objective seems to have been abandoned in the open countryside.