The Slovenian government has raised the issue of the size of the public sector and announced changes that could direct some employees toward the economy.

Prime Minister Janez Janša believes that too many people are employed in the state system, while private companies simultaneously lack workers.

As respected journalist Urška Mlinarič writes for N1 Slovenia, at the end of 2025 there were 196,123 employees in the public sector, and Janša claims that several tens of thousands of people are in positions where they are not needed.

The number of employees is growing, but there is an important comparison

The number of employees in the Slovenian public sector increased from around 126,000 at the beginning of the 1990s to more than 196,000 last year. From 2015 to 2025 alone, the number of employees rose by more than 28,000. However, this figure by itself does not mean that Slovenia has an unusually large public sector. According to the OECD, employees in general government account for about 16.8 percent of total employment in Slovenia, while the average among OECD member countries is 18.4 percent.

Why are there more and more employees?

One of the reasons for the growth is the greater need for workers in healthcare, education, and social care. The Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration states that from 2015 to 2025, nearly 9,000 more people were employed in healthcare, more than 12,000 in education, and about 2,600 more in social care. This means that the growth of the public sector did not arise solely from hiring officials in offices. At the same time, certain parts of the state administration also grew, which is why the government wants to examine where tasks overlap and where the number of employees could be reduced.

The government wants to direct some people toward the economy

Janša speaks of so-called soft restructuring, which in practice should mean reducing the number of employees where the government assesses that there are too many of them, and not necessarily mass layoffs. As an argument, he also cites the major shortage of workers in the economy and Slovenia's dependence on foreign labor. However, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia warns that public servants can hardly simply replace foreign workers because foreigners are most often employed in manufacturing, construction, transport, warehousing, and hospitality, writes N1 Slovenia.

In conclusion, the number of employees in the Slovenian public sector has visibly increased in recent years, but the data do not provide a simple answer to the question of whether there are really too many of them. A large share of the new jobs was created in healthcare, education, and social services, while the share of public employment remains below the OECD average. It will therefore be crucial where the government finds surplus employees and whether it can carry out rationalization without reducing the availability of public services. Only when concrete plans by institution become known will it be possible to assess how extensive the announced reform actually is.