New hires made by public agencies grew nearly eight percent last year while half of them were local recruits.

The Finance Ministry said Friday that it disclosed the management information of public institutions for the year 2015 such as employment numbers on the data disclosure Web site alio.go.kr.

The number of staff members and employees of public institutions grew two-point-nine percent to 287-thousand last year.

New hires jumped seven-point-nine percent from 2014 to 19-thousand. The near eight percent rise is a sharp increase from four-point-seven percent in 2013 and just over one percent in 2014.

As more public agencies relocated to provincial areas, the number of local recruits surpassed the ten-thousand mark for the first time to record ten-thousand-129. 

The percentage of local hires among the newly employed is steadily on the rise, posting 48 percent in 2011 and over 53 percent last year.