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Mozambique only authorizes hiring 4,142 workers for the civil service in 2025
6:30 CAT | 15 May 2025
File photo: O País
The Mozambican government only expects to hire 4,142 workers for the civil service in 2025, less than the previous year and a third of the hirings in 2023, according to official data.
According to data from the proposed law on the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) for 2025, approved on Saturday in the Assembly of the Republic, these authorized admissions will cost more than 1,238 million meticais (€17.5 million) this year, raising personnel expenses to 210,789 million meticais (€2,980 million), corresponding to 60% of the Mozambican state’s operating expenses.
According to the same document, in 2024, 4,880 State Employees and Agents (FAE) were hired, including around 2,900 for the education sector, mainly teachers, and 1,294 for health, while in the previous year these entries reached 12,491, including more than 5,400 in education and 4,150 in health.
This year, the government will authorise the hiring of 2,922 workers for the education sector, including general, technical, higher education and professional training, as well as 724 for health, 351 for agriculture, including forest rangers, and 145 for the administration of justice.
“For the remaining sectors, the Government will continue to monitor staff mobility, with a view to ensuring the containment of the growth of the wage bill,” the document reads.
Mozambique expects to spend 2.907 billion euros on public sector salaries in 2025, an increase of 1.3% in one year, but the Government will limit each new hire to three, according to PESOE.
According to the proposal, the total cost of salaries and wages amounted to 202,859 million meticais (2,811 million euros) last year and is expected to rise to 205,550 million meticais (2,907 million euros) this year, equivalent to 13.3% of the estimated gross domestic product.
The Mozambican state’s expenditure on salaries and wages grew by around 40% in 2024, compared to the previous year, according to data from the government, which last June estimated the total number of civil servants and state agents in Mozambique at 370,000.
“Within the scope of rationalising public spending, the commitment to contain expenditure on salaries and wages and to stabilise public debt, which have been the main factors putting the most pressure on the State Budget, remains in place,” reads the budget document for 2025.
Therefore, it is added, “to ensure containment of the wage bill in the short term and to provide a sustainable trajectory in the medium term, restrictions on new admissions will be tightened”, as well as “the subsidies granted” to state employees and agents will be reassessed, “and measures will be implemented to strengthen control over human resources in the Public Administration”.
In order to “reduce personnel expenses from 15% to 13.7% of GDP in the medium term”, the government undertakes in the PESOE to carry out an audit and proof of life, “with a specific focus on verifying and validating the Salary and Remuneration sheet”, as well as to review and improve current subsidies, such as location and seniority allowances, to adapt to real responsibilities and categories and use them more effectively as incentives.
In order to “ensure the rationalization of the workforce in the public sector”, the government defines that “new hires must comply” with the rule of “admitting one employee for every three employees who leave the public administration”.
In the PESOE, the Mozambican government forecasts GDP growth of 2.9% for 2025, an average annual inflation rate of 7%, exports of goods worth US$8,431 million (€7,379 million) and revenues of more than 385,871 million meticais (€5,347 million), equivalent to 25% of GDP, for total expenditure of 512,749 million meticais (€7,107 million), corresponding to 33.2% of GDP.
The budget deficit will be 8.2%, equivalent to 126,878 million meticais (€1,759 million), financed in particular by issuing public debt.
Source: Lusa
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