The proportion of staff employed at sub-central levels of government is an indicator of the level of decentralisation of public administrations. Larger shares of government employees employed at the sub-central level typically means that local and regional governments have more responsibility for providing public services. While decentralisation can increase the responsiveness of government to local needs and priorities, it can also result in variations in service delivery within countries.
In 2017, more general government employees were employed at the sub-central level than at the central level, though this varies across countries. Some federal states, such as Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, characteristically demonstrate higher levels of general government employees working at the sub-central level. Others with a unitary state model, such as Ireland, Israel and Turkey, tend to concentrate most general government workers at the central level.
Between 2011 and 2017, the percentage of general government staff employed at the central level has remained relatively stable, continuing a trend observed during the period 2009-14. This suggests that in countries that experienced adjustments to government employment levels over this period (see Employment in general government), these adjustments were, on the whole, equally shared at central and sub-central levels and have not markedly changed since the 2007-08 financial crisis. Only Hungary has experienced significant change over this period, where the share of government staff employed at the central level has increased by 27 p.p. This increase was due to the reorganisation of the territorial public administration during this period. Additionally, the proportion of government staff employed at the central level in the United Kingdom as well as in the Netherlands grew by 8.5 p.p. and 5 p.p., respectively, between 2011 and 2017. In both cases, this was the result of an increase in the staff employed at the central level and a decrease in the staff at the sub-central levels that produced an overall reduction of the general government staff over this period.
