Only 20 top-level posts to go as workforce shrinks by almost 5,000, while use of contract staff hits four-year high
Hong Kong’s government has promised to trim nearly 5,000 civil service posts as part of a drive to curb spending, but an analysis of departmental budgets suggests the cuts will fall almost entirely below the most senior ranks.
This year’s budget set out a reduction of 4,987 posts in 2026/27, a fall of 2.6% that will take the civil service to 187,429 posts by the end of March 2027. Of the city’s 84 departments and units, 77 will lose staff.
But among the 76 that reported figures for their most senior staff, known as directorate officers and broadly comparable with Britain’s senior civil service, 61 will leave those posts untouched. Thirteen will cut some, and two will add some. The net reduction is 20 posts out of more than 1,400, or about 1.4%.
The three departments losing the most jobs illustrate the pattern. The police force will shed 1,335 posts but none of its 77 directorate roles. The fire services department will cut 259 posts and keep all 22 of its senior positions, while the food and environmental hygiene department will lose 235 and keep all 17. In the Development Bureau’s planning and lands branch, overall staffing falls by nine, yet directorate posts rise from 17 to 18.
Eight bodies, including Hong Kong Post and the Hospital Authority, did not publish directorate figures in the budget.
The financial secretary, Paul Chan, has said the civil service must shrink by 2% in each of the next two financial years, with about 10,000 posts expected to go over the current administration’s term, as the government grapples with a budget deficit.
As permanent posts are cut, the number of contract staff outside the civil service has risen. By the end of June 2025, departments employed 10,671 full-time non-civil-service contract workers, a four-year high. The scheme, introduced in 1999, was meant to give department heads flexibility to cover time-limited work, yet 3,277 of those staff have served for five years or more.
The trend has raised questions over whether the government intends to replace permanent staff with contract workers gradually. Those concerns have been sharpened by a recent decision at Hong Kong Post to offer contract terms to staff completing probation, in place of permanent posts. The analysis said the change had been made without adequate consultation.