The report says the public service expanded by the equivalent of 31,227 full-time employees between April 2020 and March 2022, which departments attribute mostly to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, average compensation for the equivalent of a full-time employee rose by 6.6 per cent, from $117,497 in 2019-20 to $125,300 in 2021-22.
The PBO says expenditure could rise further, with 26 out of 28 bargaining groups currently negotiating collective agreements.
Based on the 2023-24 departmental plans, the public service will reach the equivalent of 428,000 full-time employees this fiscal year.
That amounts to an increase of 23,000 full-time jobs compared to last year’s plans.
The report says the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada account for two-thirds of that increase.
But the budget watchdog adds that the departments’ current plans don’t include the likely increase in workers that will be needed to carry out new measures announced in the 2023 budget.
The report says that as things stand, by 2025-26, the total number of full-time employees in the government is projected to fall to 400,000 — a number that still exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
The government was plagued by service delays during the pandemic, prompting additional hiring to ease backlogs.