Public Administration & Defence

 

British Columbia's government structure has its roots in colonial days. Richard Blanshard became the first governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 and was succeeded in 1851 by James Douglas, who eventually became the first governor of the united colony of British Columbia. When BC joined Confederation in 1871, John Foster McCreight became the first premier.

With a growing population came the need to maintain law and order. One of British Columbia's most well-known and colourful historical personalities was Matthew Baillie Begbie. He was sent to BC in 1858 to help establish order during the wild gold rush days and was the province's only judge for 12 years. Begbie later became the first Chief Justice of the BC Supreme Court.

What's included in public administration & defence?

Public administration & defence includes establishments that are involved in governmental activities, such as enacting and interpreting laws and regulations or administering programs based on them. This includes legislative activities, taxation, national defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs, and international assistance.

In Canada, there are three main levels of government, which all have different responsibilities. Local governments, for example, are responsible for maintaining streets, bridges, and other public works in cities and towns. Provincial governments are responsible for administering the public health care and education system, and for natural resources, which are owned by the Crown. Defence and foreign affairs are the sole domain of the federal government. All three levels of government levy taxes that are used to fund various types of social programs, maintain public infrastructure, and protect people and property.

The industry does not include establishments that are owned or controlled by government but are not engaged in governmental activities. For example, a crown corporation that produces electric power may be publicly owned, but its activities would be attributed to the utilities industry rather than to public administration & defence.

Like health care and education, the demand for many of the services produced by this industry is related to the size of the population. As the population grows, there are more people who use the health care and education systems, there may be more demands on the social safety net, and the need for policing and similar services may increase.

Although some of these services (e.g., health care and education) are often provided by establishments in other industries, they are usually publicly funded and administered. Historically, the size of the workforce in government has expanded with the population. Similarly, the need for publicly provided infrastructure (roads, highways, hospitals, and sewer systems), police services, correctional facilities, and so on, often grows with the population.

Employment in the civil service is usually not subject to wide variations related to the business cycle. However, the social safety net includes federal and provincial programs such as Employment Insurance, Old Age Pensions and Income Assistance, so the demand for some government services tends to expand during periods of economic slowdown, when more people may need assistance. Government revenues (which are primarily from taxes and other fees) usually fall when the economy slows, so this creates some challenges. On the other hand, during periods of economic expansion, government revenues rise with the economy, and the demand for some types of public services is reduced.

Political or philosophical differences between governments can, and often do, have an effect on the size of the civil service and the work that it does. Some governments favour allowing the private sector to provide services, while others choose to provide them directly.

What's happened since 1990?

During the 1990s, governments in many parts of the country restructured their operations. To a large extent, this was driven by concerns about persistent deficits and the cost of financing a growing public debt.

The federal government made efforts to balance the budget using tax as well as expenditure measures. There was some downsizing of the workforce, but this was achieved primarily by restricting employment growth rather than cutting back on the number of workers in the industry.

In BC, the government of the day did not make this a priority, and employment in provincial public administration continued to grow with the population during the early 1990s.

Since the mid-1990s, however, the number of jobs in the provincial government has not grown as fast as the population. This has occurred as a result of improvements in the productivity of the existing workforce as well as by refocusing the efforts of some workers into new areas. At the same time, some types of jobs, such as highway maintenance, are now being done by private sector contractors instead of government employees.

Employment in public administration & defence increased just 15% between 1990 and 2008, less than a third as much as job growth in the economy (+48%) during this period. The total number of jobs in local government increased 26%, while employment in federal government offices located in BC increased 17% from 1990. The number of jobs in the provincial government declined slightly (-2%) during this period.

By keeping the lid on employment growth during a period when the population was increasing significantly (the number of people living in the province grew by 36% between 1990 and 2008, more than double the 15% increase in public administration employment), all three levels of government are now able to provide services more efficiently than they used to. In 1990, there were 28 civil servants for every 1,000 people living in the province; by 2008, the public sector employment rate had dropped to 24 workers per 1,000 population.

Employment in public administration has not kept pace with population growth

The industry's share of total employment has fallen quite substantially since 1990, when nearly 6% of the workforce was directly employed by a federal, provincial or local government office or agency. In 2008, a little more than 4% of the workforce was employed in this industry. Over the same period, the industry's share of total GDP has fallen from 6% to just over 5%.

The industry's share of GDP and employment has been falling

What are the most common occupations?

Diplomats, Supreme Court judges, firefighters, police officers, members of the armed forces, the clerk who sells you a fishing licence, and the person who works in a government office are all civil servants. Some jobs, like the Supreme Court judge's, can only be obtained after many years of education and experience; others, like the firefighter's or soldier's, demand physical stamina and a high level of physical fitness, and may involve a great deal of risk to the worker. Other public sector jobs are not a lot different from those in other industries.

The most common occupations within public administration & defence are in business, finance & administration. Nearly a third (32%) of the people who work for federal, provincial, and local governments employed in these types of occupations. Most of them are clerical workers, secretaries, immigration & revenue officers, auditors, or in similar occupations.

Of the 21% of the workforce with jobs in sales & service occupations, most are police officers, military personnel, firefighters, correctional service officers, and bylaw enforcement officials.

One in three workers is employed in business, finance & administrative occupations

Seventeen percent are in natural & applied sciences. These include biologists, engineers, technical workers, information systems analysts, inspectors, conservation and fisheries officers, urban & land use planners, and forestry professionals. Twelve percent of the workers are in social sciences and related occupations. These include lawyers, social workers, policy researchers, judges, and instructors. The remainder of the workforce is comprised largely of management (10%) and other (6%) occupations, including trades, transportation & equipment operators, and people working in occupations specific to primary industries. The latter are mainly landscapers and forestry workers.

How many people work in public administration & defence and how much do they earn?

Federal, provincial, and local governments in the province employed 102,900 people in 2008. Local government was the biggest employer, with 38,200 workers. Another 37,800 British Columbians worked for the federal governments, while 26,800 were employed by the provincial government.

The federal government is the biggest employer in this industry

Workers in the industry earned an average wage of $28.16 per hour in 2008. This was $6.70 more than the average for workers in all industries, and higher than in any other service industry. Utilities ($30.05) was the only industry with higher average wages in 2008.

In the provincial government, wages averaged $29.03 an hour, compared to $28.31 an hour in local government and $27.40 an hour for federal government workers. The usual work week in public administration & defence was 37 hours long.

Hourly earnings well above average

What are the characteristics of the workforce?

Ninety-two percent of the people who work in public administration & defence have full-time jobs. That's well above the average for the economy as a whole (80%) and higher than in any other service-sector industry.

There is not much seasonal variation in employment in this industry, but it does hire temporary workers. Eleven percent of the workforce was hired on a temporary basis in 2008, about the same as the average for all industries.

The male-female composition is the same as in the workforce in general: 47% of the people who work in the industry are female and 53% are male.

Seven out of 10 workers in this industry have union coverage

The industry is highly unionized. Seventy-one percent of workers have union coverage, more than twice the average (31%) for all industries in the province.

People who work in public administration & defence are usually not very likely to experience unemployment. From 1990 to 2008, the jobless rate in this industry averaged 3.0%, less than half the 7.8% average for the economy as a whole. Finance, insurance, real estate & leasing and health care & social assistance were the only industries with lower average unemployment rates during this period.

Unemployment rates are generally low

Self-employment is virtually non-existent in this sector. By definition, all of the people who work in public administration & defence are employees of the state.

Even though government is a big employer, a lot of the people in this industry work in fairly small offices

Even though both the federal and provincial government, and some of the larger cities in the province, have many employees, they do not all work in large offices. In fact, nearly one-quarter of all civil servants work in an office with fewer than 20 co-workers. Another 33% are employed at locations with 20-99 employees. However, 15% of the people in this industry work in a large establishment, with more than 500 employees.

Where are the jobs located?

Victoria is the capital city, so most provincial government ministries have their main offices in the Vancouver Island/Coast region of the province. As a result, about 31% of the people who work in the industry are located in this region. Its share of the total workforce is just 17%.

Many of the jobs in this industry are in Vancouver Island/Coast

Conversely, the Vancouver area's share of government sector workers (52%) is lower than its share of total employment (61%). In the rest of the province (except Cariboo), employment in the industry is marginally lower than the regional share of total employment.

What's the outlook to 2017?

Employment in the industry is not expected to increase as much as in the rest of the economy, and the industry's share of total employment is forecast to decline slightly. However, it is anticipated that GDP growth will slightly outpace the average for all industries in the province.

Employment in public administration & defence is expected to keep pace with the rest of the economy