Government caps contractual-worker hiring

THE government has capped the hiring of contractual employees and tasked-based workers following the issuance of Joint Circular No. 1, series of 2025, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) said on Thursday.

The circular, jointly issued with the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management, sets limits on contractual hiring by government agencies, allowing them to engage contract of service (CoS) and job order (JO) workers only up to the number recorded at the end of 2025, according to CSC.

The circular allows departments and agencies to engage new CoS and JO workers through individual contracts and to renew the contracts of existing CoS and JO workers until Dec. 31.

The guidelines cover national government agencies, government-owned or -controlled corporations with original charters, state universities and colleges, and constitutional bodies.

Local government units and CoS and JO workers paid from engineering and administrative overhead expenses are excluded.

“The issuance also directs agencies to review their staffing requirements, prepare Optimization Plans under the Government Optimization Act, and consider existing CoS and JO workers for possible absorption into plantilla positions,” the CSC said in a statement.

“Additional provisions include ancillary benefits, reportorial requirements, and responsibilities of agency heads to support worker welfare,” it added. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking