Recruitment at public firms decreased by an annual average of 20 percent over a two-and-a-half-year period starting in 2022. 

That’s the result of an analysis of employees and new hires at 339 public firms and agencies by corporate tracker Leaders Index.

According to the analysis, released Tuesday, the number of regular workers at the public institutions declined by one-point-two percent, or some 46-hundred people, over the entire period from around 400-thousand in 2022.

But the number of newly hired regular workers decreased nearly 20 percent every year, from about 24-thousand-500 in 2022 to 22-thousand in 2023 and 13-thousand-350 in the first nine months of last year.

During the period, 223 public firms reduced new hires while 99 firms increased recruitment.