Public service

The State is the largest or the single most important employer in almost all countries. The public service personnel comprise persons employed by public authorities at central, regional and local levels and include both civil servants and public employees. Public authorities and public emergency services must provide high-quality services to their citizens and decent work for their workers. The optimal way to achieve sustainable national development and poverty alleviation is to promote good governance and transparency through effective social dialogue in the public service. The ILO assists governments in improving labour relations and to protect whistle-blowers in the public service.

Key resources

Technical meeting on the protection of whistle-blowers in the public service sector (26-30 September 2022)
Meeting of Experts to adopt Guidelines on Decent Work in Public Emergency Services (16-20 April 2018)
Global Dialogue Forum on Challenges to Collective Bargaining in the Public Service (2-3 April 2014)

The line graphs show a time series of modelled global and regional employment estimates at the sectoral level. The ILO modelled estimates generally cover 189 countries, offering a comprehensive set of internationally comparable labour statistics. These include both reported data and imputed figures for countries with missing information. The imputations are generated using econometric models developed by the ILO.

For more detailed labour market indicators and country-level data, visit the Sectoral Employment Statistics page of the ILOSTAT database.

The line graphs show a time series of modelled global and regional employment estimates at the sectoral level. The ILO modelled estimates generally cover 189 countries, offering a comprehensive set of internationally comparable labour statistics. These include both reported data and imputed figures for countries with missing information. The imputations are generated using econometric models developed by the ILO.

For more detailed labour market indicators and country-level data, visit the Sectoral Employment Statistics page of the ILOSTAT database.