For the first time, the count of male government employees who utilized parental leave last year went beyond that of their female counterparts. Additionally, the number of women working at Grade 3 within the organization also crossed the 200 mark for the first time.
As per the "2025 Administrative Branch National Civil Service Personnel Statistics" published by the Ministry of Personnel Management on the 11th, a total of 19,105 national civil servants utilized parental leave during the previous year, with 10,704 (or 56.0%) being men and 8,401 women.
For the first time since the implementation of the civil service parental leave policy in 1994, more men have utilized the benefit than women. In 2016, males accounted for just 18.9%, yet this share gradually rose to 29.0% in 2018, 39.0% in 2020, 46.0% in 2022, and reached an equal percentage with females at 50.0% in 2024.
By the end of last year, there were 1,469 senior government officials, with 210 (or 14.3%) being women. In the following level, known as Grade 3, there were 913 employees, 205 of whom (22.5%) were female. This marks the initial instance where the count of women in Grade 3 surpassed 200. The percentage of women within both the higher-level administrative positions and Grade 3 continues to grow each year.
Last year, the overall count of national government employees reached 764,336, reflecting a rise of 872 (or 0.1%) compared to the prior year. This included 126 individuals holding appointed roles such as the President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, and deputy ministers; 183,778 regular public officials; and 580,016 personnel serving in specialized posts. Within these special categories, education-related staff formed the largest group with 364,106 members, followed by law enforcement officers with 144,547, firefighters comprising 67,071, diplomatic representatives totaling 2,194, and prosecutors amounting to 2,098.
Female employees made up 49.0% of the total number of national government workers, which amounts to 374,748 individuals. Between 2017 and 2019, the percentage of women surpassed 50%, but it decreased slightly to 47.9% in 2020 after firefighters—whose workforce typically includes more men—were transitioned into the category of national civil servants. Nevertheless, the share of females has risen each year thereafter.
Last year, 13,651 national government employees chose to retire voluntarily, encompassing both early retirees and those who resigned, marking a drop of 3,641 compared to 17,292 in the prior year. The Ministry of Personnel Management noted, "It is believed this outcome stems from collaborative initiatives aimed at improving workplace environments via better work-life integration and innovations in public sector culture, along with measures designed to boost compensation, like raising basic salaries and benefits for roles in practice, junior staff, and frontline officials."
