Whatever the reasons, the first Union Budget after the elections did announce a few schemes, including an internship programme aimed at creating more jobs in the private sector. Simultaneously, the government decided to pay more attention to the need to offer jobs in its ministries and departments.
In July last year, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told the Indian Parliament that the government had issued directives to all Union ministries and departments to take timely and advance action to fill vacant posts through direct recruitment. “Rozgar Melas are being organised in 45-50 cities at regular intervals, which act as a catalyst for the time-bound filling of vacancies across central government ministries, departments, and organisation,” Mr Singh stated in response to a Parliament question.
Indeed, at a Rozgar Mela organised in December 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had distributed over 71,000 appointment letters to newly recruited government employees. Earlier in October 2024, Mr Modi had distributed over 51,000 appointment letters for government jobs at another Rozgar Mela.
This was understandable also because the government’s own data on jobs brought out a disturbing trend. The department of expenditure in the Union finance ministry had estimated that over 24 per cent of the total sanctioned posts in the Union government remained unfilled as of March 1, 2023. Against 4.04 million sanctioned posts, the number of persons employed was 3.06 million, implying that 0.98 million posts remained vacant.
Has that situation got better after the drive to fill vacancies in the government? Before attempting an answer to that question, it would be useful to take a quick look at the performance of the Modi government on this front since it was formed in May 2014.
Going by the Budget documents, as of March 1, 2015, the Union government had 3.3 million persons on its rolls in different ministries, departments, and Union Territories, excluding the armed forces. Just about 10 departments (the railways, atomic energy, space, police, health, audit, revenue, civil defence, posts and urban development) had employed 3.1 million persons, accounting for over 93 per cent of the total government workforce. Quite understandably, the share of the Indian Railways in this group (1.33 million employees) was at the highest at over 40 per cent.
About 10 years later, as of March 1, 2025, the total number of government employees remained virtually unchanged at 3.3 million. Even the share of these 10 departments in the total government workforce remained the same. Notably, however, the Indian Railways saw a decrease in its workforce to 1.21 million, accounting for about 37 per cent of the total employee strength. This was a drop of over 100,000 employees in a decade. It is not yet clear if this decrease is because of more jobs being performed by contractual workers, outsourcing, or technology.
In contrast, some departments saw their workforce go up significantly. These were the police, revenue, defence (civilian) and the postal department. In spite of the increasing use of technology, employees in the revenue department (including direct and indirect taxes) rose by 16 per cent, from about 96,500 to over 112,000 during this period. The number of civilian defence employees almost doubled, but the rise in the strength of the central police and postal employees was marginal in low single digits.
But there was an interesting change in the way the government started recruiting staff for its departments between 2023 and 2025, compared to how it had gone about its hiring between 2014 and 2023. In the first nine years of the Modi government, the number of government employees came down sharply from 3.3 million in 2014-15 to 3.1 million in 2022-23. But in the following two years, this number rose and, by March 2025, it was estimated at 3.3 million. In other words, the government’s focus on filling up vacancies in its ministries and departments did make a difference, though it implied an increase of only six per cent. Assuming that the number of sanctioned posts remained unchanged at 4.04 million, the vacancy level dropped from over 24 per cent to 18 per cent.
The government’s Budget documents bring out yet another interesting trend regarding its staff strength. Every year, at the time of presenting the Budget, the finance ministry presents an estimate of the government’s staff strength at the start of March that year and the actual staff strength for the previous year on the same day. For instance, the Budget for 2025-26 presented the actual staff strength as of March 1, 2024, and an estimated staff strength as of March 1, 2025. However, when these estimates become actual numbers in the following year, it becomes clear that the government’s ability to hire people as planned is woefully poor, or that its estimates are a little misleading.
Consider the following. In the Budget for 2025-26, the estimated staff strength as of March 1, 2025, was shown as 3.65 million, but the actuals revealed a year later in the Budget for 2026-27 placed the staff strength at 3.3 million. This is a long-standing trend and has been happening for many years, though the gap has widened of late. But it shows how the government’s ability to hire people is either limited or its planning lacks the necessary teeth. Of course, the government saves some money by not being able to hire the workforce as per its plan. For instance, the revised estimate for pay, allowances and travel for these government employees during 2024-25 was ₹3.39 trillion. But the actual expenditure under this head was lower at ₹3.35 trillion.
These issues pertaining to the administrative ability to hire people gain salience at a time when the government is laying greater emphasis on hiring more staff in its ministries and departments. The debate is not just about whether the government should be hiring more people, but whether the 4 million sanctioned posts should be reviewed and whether ministries should be held accountable for presenting proposals for additional recruitment and for failing to meet those targets. Already, this year’s Budget numbers reveal how the government’s capacity to spend money is strained. It seems the capacity to even hire more people is equally limited.
 "Job sector, jobs, hiring")