In developing countries, there was a need to create jobs for an increasing number of educated young people. Consequently, public employment accounted for a very high rate of wage employment in general. Following this period of expansion came one of contraction linked to structural adjustment programmes, that witnessed freezes on recruitment, the laying off of temporary workers, voluntary and compulsory redundancy measures. The impact of such measures on public service personnel depends on the available safety nets and opportunities for redeployment. Retraining and job placement schemes may ease the transition to the private sector.
Many governments claim that there is no gender discrimination in the public service.
This led to the introduction of quotas and to the revision of gender-biased selection procedures. The fact that the public service has often offered more and better employment opportunities to women than the private sector, has made them particularly vulnerable to spending cuts in the public service. Women may at the same time have unequal access to compensatory programmes such as retraining and job placement. On the other hand, in many countries, the trend towards decentralization may be of advantage to women, who tend to be more numerous in local than in central governments. It does not deal, however, with the position of public servants engaged in the administration of the State.