Queensland public service shrinks further but well-paid contracters sitting pretty EMERGENCY: Ambos join a public service rally in July 2012. ALMOST 9000 permanent, temporary and casual public servants left the Queensland Government workforce in the last three months of 2012 but the number of highly-paid contractors remained virtually unchanged. The December quarter workforce report published by the Public Service Commission revealed the actual number of public servants fell from 239,424 in the September quarter to 230,831. Permanent employees paid an average $79,322 a year went from 186,259 to 181,832, and casuals earning an average $62,076 dropped by 2446 to 15,260. Temporary workers were reduced by about 1700 but the number of contractors, paid an average $127,061 a year, were cut by just 64 to 1621. The biggest reduction in department size occurred in Transport and Main Roads, which saw its workforce shrink from 10,097 to 7018. Employees at Queensland Health went from 81,385 to 79,832 but the Police Service, and Education, Training and Employment department both grew in size. Redundancies are continuing to be handed out until the State Government achieves its target of axing 14,000 full-time equivalent positions "to give Queensland a public service it can afford." But Alex Scott from public sector union Together Queensland said the actual number of employees axed would be significantly higher. "We think around 9000 redundancies have now been paid, but total job losses will be over 20,000," Mr Scott said. The Premier said when he came back from holidays there'd be no more jobs cut but every week we see more people leaving Health, Community Safety and other departments. However Minister Assisting the Premier Glen Elmes said the figure of 14,000 was "set in stone" and further public service reform recommended by the Commission of Audit report would not occur without public consultation. "We will go through a process with the Costello report," Mr Elmes told parliament this month. We will look at it, and we will study it over the next two months. We will then take it to the people of Queensland so we can have a rational debate about the future of this state. The workforce report also revealed that despite making up only 35 per cent of the public service, men held 65 per cent of the highest paid jobs ($120,000 and over).