86,398 government employees in Karnataka to retire in next five years

A total of 86,398 government employees in Karnataka are set to retire over the next five years, according to data, putting tremendous pressure on the CM Siddaramaiah administration to hire, even as a huge number of positions remain vacant.

At present, there are 2.84 lakh government posts vacant. This number could further rise if the government does not recruit in a big way.

In its 2023 election manifesto, the Congress had promised to fill all government vacancies in one year.

Between 2023 and 2025, the state government successfully filled 8,157 posts. Recruitment for another 3,081 posts is in progress, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated in the ongoing session of the legislature.

Rising expenditure

In the 2026-27 fiscal year, the government is expected to incur an expenditure of Rs 1.32 lakh crore on salaries and pensions. This is a 38% increase from Rs 96,166 crore that the government spent to pay salaries and pensions in 2023-24.

By 2029-30, expenditure on salaries and pensions is projected to rise to Rs 1.65 lakh crore.

“While periodic revisions in salaries and pensions are essential to account for inflation, maintain morale, and ensure the efficient delivery of public services, they also have significant implications for the state’s fiscal management,” the Medium Term Fiscal Plan 2026-30 said.

Government employees retiring

“The resulting increase in committed expenditure reduces short-term flexibility in budget allocation and necessitates careful prioritisation of developmental and capital outlays.”

The 5th State Finance Commission has specifically asked the government to introduce "stringent" performance assessment and identify "unnecessary" staff whose work is redundant.

Reservation confusion

The government could not carry out recruitment for nine months, between November 2024 and August 2025, because of a freeze imposed to finalise internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC).

Subsequently, facing massive protests by job aspirants over the delay in hiring, the government decided on February 27 to fill up 56,432 posts via direct recruitment. These posts will be filled up based on 50 per cent reservation — 15 per cent for SC, 3 per cent ST and 32 per cent OBC.

While a government order asks departments to start the recruitment process for 56,432 posts within 30 days, the SC (Left) community is rallying for the implementation of internal reservation within the 15 per cent reservation. However, there is resistance to internal reservation from the SC (Right) section.

A special meeting of the Cabinet on March 27 is expected to take a final decision on the matter.