Nearly 10 Lakh Vacancies In Govt, Show Wage Bill

Among major government employers, Railways tops the chart with 40 per cent vacancies, followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (33 per cent) and the Ministry of Defence (12 per cent). Together, they account for 85 per cent of vacancies, with the rest 15 per cent in other central ministries and departments.

The report, by the Expenditure Department of the Ministry of Finance, contains wage bill data till March 1, 2023. It says the total number of sanctioned posts for civilian employees in the central government (including UTs) was over 40 lakh on March 31, 2023, of which over 9.7 lakh (nearly 25 per cent) were lying vacant.

As per the report, maximum vacancies can be seen in the Group ‘B’ (non-gazetted) category (over 33 per cent), followed by Group ‘C’ (nearly 24 per cent), Group ‘A’ (nearly 23 per cent), with Group ‘B’ (gazetted) having the lowest number of vacancies (nearly 16 per cent).

In absolute terms, the number of sanctioned posts for Group ‘A’ is 1,44,755, of which 1,11,979 are officers, which means there are 32,776 vacancies.

For Group ‘B’ (gazetted), the total sanctioned posts are 1,18,264, with 99,544 filled and 18,720 vacant. Group B (non-gazetted) shows the maximum vacancies in percentage terms, with 98,941 vacancies out of 2,96,036 sanctioned posts. 

However, in absolute terms, the maximum number of unfilled posts is in Group ‘C’, with 8,27,495 vacancies out of 34,80,827 sanctioned posts.

The report, which shows data on the government’s expenditure on pay and allowances to employees, is silent on the reasons for the backlog in filling up vacancies. While experts acknowledged that the government is not filling up vacancies in proportion to the number of employees retiring, they also said many jobs, particularly in Group ‘B’ (non-gazetted) and Group ‘C’, are being outsourced to external agencies.

The report says that the total expenditure on pay and allowance (excluding productivity-linked bonus, ad-hoc bonus, honorarium, encashment of earned leaves, and travel allowances) for civilian employees of the central government, has risen by over 7 per cent in FY23 to reach Rs 2.75 lakh crore (against Rs 2.56 lakh crore of FY22). It also said that over 75 per cent of the total wage bills were for three ministries — Railways, Defence (civilian employees) and Home Affairs.

The most revealing data is from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which had the maximum vacancies (nearly 42 per cent) on March 1, 2023. In absolute number terms, the MoD has 2,43,589 vacancies out of 5,77239 sanctioned posts in different categories.

Even in the case of Group ‘A’ posts within the MoD, over 5,000 posts are lying vacant, out of 19,402 sanctioned posts. In Group ‘B’ (non-gazetted) and Group ‘C’, nearly half the posts are vacant.     

Although the ministries of Railways (21 per cent) and Home Affairs (11 per cent) may look better than Defence in percentage terms, they look very similar in absolute numbers of vacancies.

Officials said that over the past few years, the government has been making efforts to fill the vacancies through ‘Rozgar Melas’ with a target of giving employment to 10 lakh youth.