Public Administration & Defence

 

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.

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 which are used to fund various types of social programs, maintain public infrastructure, and protect people and property.

What's included in public administration & defence?

Public administration and 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.

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

What's happened since 1990?

Like health care and education, the demand for many of the services produced by this industry is related to the size of the population. With a growing population, the number of people requiring the services provided by this industry tends to increase. There are more people who use the health care and education system and there may be more who need to access the social safety net.

Although health care, social services and education are provided by establishments in other industries, these services are usually publicly funded and administered. Historically, the size of the workforce that runs the social safety net and is otherwise involved in government has expanded with the population. Similarly, the need for publicly provided infrastructure, police services, correctional facilities, and so on, grows with the population.

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

Employment in the civil service is usually not subject to wide variations related to the business cycle. However, political or philosophical differences between governments can, and often do, have an effect on the number of people employed in the civil service and the types of jobs that they have. Some governments favour allowing the private sector to provide services, while other governments choose to provide them directly.

The 1990s were a period of restructuring in the public administration and defence industry in many parts of the country. To a large extent, this was driven by concerns about persistent deficits and the cost of financing a growing public debt. The federal government in particular 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 by cutting back on the number of workers in the industry. 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 29% between 1990 and 2005), all three levels of government are now able to provide services more efficiently than they used to.

Relative to the population, the number of workers in this industry has declined

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.

The industry's share of total employment has fallen quite substantially since 1990, when nearly 6% of the workforce was directly employed by a government office or agency. In 2005, a little more than 4% of the workforce worked this industry.

Employment in public administration and defence increased just 5.8% between 1990 and 2005, less than a fifth as much as the increase in the number of jobs in the economy as a whole (+36.6%). Employment in the federal government was virtually unchanged (+1.9%) from 1990. The total number of jobs in local government increased 6.9%, while employment in the provincial government rose 9.5% during this period.

What are the most common occupations?

The most common occupations within the public administration and defence industry are in business, finance and administration. Just over a third (37%) of the people who work for federal, provincial and local governments are in this occupational group. Most of them are clerical workers, secretaries, immigration and revenue officers, auditors, or in similar types of jobs.

Most of the 18% of the workforce with jobs in sales and service occupations are police officers, firefighters, correctional officers, security guards or in occupations specific to the armed forces.

Fifteen percent of the workers are in natural and applied sciences. These include computer programmers, information systems analysts, engineers, biologists and forestry professionals. Eleven percent hold managerial positions, and 9% are employed 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 trades, transportation and equipment operators and people working in occupations specific to primary industries. The latter are mainly landscapers and forestry workers.

Thirty-seven percent of the workers are employed in business, finance & administrative occupations

Most of the 18% of the workforce with jobs in sales and service occupations are police officers, firefighters, correctional officers, security guards, or in occupations in the armed forces.

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

Federal, provincial and local governments in the province employed 95,100 people in 2005. The federal government was the biggest employer, with 32,900 workers. Another 32,400 people worked for local governments in BC, and 29,900 were employed by the provincial government.

Workers in the industry earned an average wage of $25.88 per hour in 2005. This was nearly a third higher than the average for workers in all industries. Average hourly wage rates were quite similar among the three levels of government. In the provincial government, wages averaged a little over $26 an hour, while wages were typically a little under $26 an hour at the federal and local government levels. The usual work week was 37 hours long.

The federal government is the biggest employer in this industry

What are the characteristics of the workforce?

Ninety-two percent of the people who work in public administration and 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. The male-female composition of the civil service is the same as in the workforce in general: 47% of the people who work in the industry are female and 53% are male.

The industry is highly unionized. Seventy-six percent of workers have union coverage, nearly two-and-a-half times the average for all industries in the province.

People who work in public administration and defence are not very likely to experience unemployment. From 1990 to 2005, the jobless rate in this industry averaged 3.2%, less than half the 8.4% average for the economy as a whole. However, workers in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing and health care and social assistance industries experienced even lower unemployment rates during this period.

Self-employment does not exist in this sector. By definition, all of the people who work in public administration and defence are employees of the state.

Even though both the federal and provincial government, and some of the bigger cities in the province, have a lot of employees, that doesn't mean that people with jobs in this industry are likely to work in large offices. One in five civil servants works in an office with fewer than 20 co-workers. Another 35% are employed at locations where they have more than 20, but fewer than 100 colleagues. However, 13% of the people in this industry work in a large establishment, with 500 or more employees.

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

Where are the jobs located?

As Victoria is the capital city, most provincial government ministries have their main offices in the Vancouver Island/Coast region of the province, and this is reflected in the distribution of the workforce in the public administration and defence industry. About 29% of the people who work in the industry are located in this region. Its share of the total workforce is just 16%.

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

Conversely, the Vancouver area's share of government sector workers (55%) is lower than its share of total employment (61%). In the rest of the province, employment in the industry is marginally lower than the regional share of total employment.

What's the outlook to 2014?

Employment in the industry is expected to grow at average rates over the next few years, accounting for about 5% of the total workforce by 2014, the same share as in 2004. However, it's anticipated that GDP growth will be a little faster than the average for all industries.

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