A new report on the State of Human Resource, 2025, says with the easing of restrictions on recruitment, a total of 681,277 positions have been approved across government, but only 374,642 staff are in the posts, representing a net increase of 18,138 positions from 2024.
The report was released by the Ministry of Public Service in Kampala on Tuesday.
Mr Joses Yegyeza, the Commissioner of Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ministry of Public Service, said, ‘Between 2024 and 2025, the Public Service saw an overall fill rate improvement of just 1% as the creation of new structural positions outstripped actual recruitment.’
‘Nearly one out of every two approved positions in Uganda remains unfulfilled as of December 2025,” he added.
The report says while the actual employee headcount has grown by more than 32,000 since 2021, the simultaneous creation of new administrative and service structures has driven the overall fill rate down by 6 percent from 61 percent in 2021.
Workforce capacity dashboard
The report says administrative structures have retained capacity while frontline services continue facing systematic deficits.
The government agencies constitute 71 percent filled positions, Uganda Police Force 69 percent and teaching service 67 percent, whereas frontline health and higher education face severe, systematic deficits with Referral hospitals taking the largest share of deficits at 69 percent, Public Universities 66 percent and Primary Health Care with 61 percent.
Currently, the teaching service has 177, 667 filled positions, leaving a gap of 87,080 positions, Primary Healthcare 43,567 filled with a gap of 84,664, Local government 43,798 filled with a gap of 32,509, and Uganda Police Force with 48,090 filled, leaving a gap of 21,733.
Others include Uganda Prison Service with 14,896 filled with a gap of 27,828 positions, Ministries and Departments 16,206 filled with a gap of 13,559 positions, Referral hospitals with 7,930 filled with a gap of 18,829 positions, Public Universities 8,451 filled with a gap of 16,373, and government agencies with 12,037 positions with 4,860 gaps.
But Mr Dennis Ojok, a senior statistician, Ministry of Public Service, clarified that while health and Universities face the highest percentage gaps, the sheer scale of the teaching service means it holds the largest absolute number of vacancies of 87,080 in the public sector.
Gender parity
Even though the gender parity is improving, the report reveals there are deep structural barriers that still persist in leadership and security.
Mr Ojok said the overall ratio of 59 percent (222,635) are male and 41 percent (152,007) are female with the majority of women in health services (56%), and male most dominant in both the Uganda Police (77%) and Uganda Prisons (70%).
He said while sectors like Primary Health and Teaching boast high female representation at entry and operational levels, the report reveals that persistent structural barriers have continued to prevent female career progression into strategic leadership roles across the public service.
The looming exit
22 percent (over 80,000) of the total workforce (374,642) are aged 50 and above, 69 percent (over 146,000) of the staff are aged 30-49 years, and only 9 percent (over 30,000) of the workforce is aged 18-29 years.
The reports say the extremely narrow entry-level pipeline (9%) limits long-term talent replenishment, creating a looming succession crisis as the 22% exit over the next decade.
Mr Ojok says this calls for targeted recruitment to ensure there is continuity of public service.
‘The people who are coming in between 18 and 29 are few, and the people who are exiting public service are very many, and this is becoming a challenge because when people leave, there is a problem of educational memory,’ he said.
The report says 44 percent of the workforce has served for 10 years or less, and this has reflected in the recent post -pandemic hiring surges.
The report further reveals that 25 percent of all staff have been stagnant in their current appointments for over 12 years, indicating severe promotion bottlenecks.
The Public Service Standing Orders says employees are eligible for promotion after three years; however, in this case, one in four public officers has been in the same role for over 12 years.
The report adds that even the vast majority of the workforce is also sitting on lower salary scales, creating steep structural limits on career progression.
Education sector
With an approved establishment of 291,571 positions and 188,118 staff in post as of December 2025, the education sector is regarded as the undisputed engine of the state workforce, representing nearly 1 in 2 public servants.
The report indicates that the filling rate improved from 62 percent in 2024 to 65 percent in 2025, a net gain of 7,095 employees, yet the structural deficit remains massive.
At the primary level, the staffing gap has been reduced with a fill rate of 81 percent (137,849 staff in post). At the secondary level, the fill rate stands at 46%, with Public Universities at 34 percent, and tertiary institutions at 29 percent only.
The report identified secondary schools as having nearly all approved administrative leadership, but lacked the core teaching cadres required to actually deliver learning outcomes.
At Public Universities, the reports say there is a dual crisis with a severe lack of senior academics and a broken entry pipeline with no internal mechanism to groom the next generation.
The overall academic staffing stood at 31 percent with a filling rate of 12 percent for professors (133 in post), Associate professors at 19 percent (277 in post), and Senior lecturers at 29percent, Lecturers at 43 percent and Assistant lecturers at 41 percent.
Teaching Assistant filling gap stands at 12 percent with only 136 in post against the approved 1,164 positions.
Mr Tegyeza says the report also identified severe staffing inequality with specialized central institutes maintaining stability, whereas regional and rural Universities face systematic neglect.
‘Most affected are the frontline training institutions managed by local governments with the 71 percent vacancy rate (4,587 staff in post against established 16,010), directly undermining the delivery of technical and vocational skills vital for economic transformation,’ he added
Health sector
While the overall public service operates at a strained 55 percent, the Health Sector is operating at a critical 33 percent fill rate. This structure compounds pressure across the entire continuum of care.
Of the approved 154,190 positions, only 51,497 are in post, creating a gap of 102,693 missing personnel, meaning for every 3 required health workers, 2 are missing.
The staffing deficits are not uniform, with the most severe system blockages occurring at regional (25%) and Specialized (20%) levels, paralyzing the intended patient referral pathway.
The report also shows early retirement in the health sector has tripped between 2022 and 2024. In an environment with a 33% fill rate, with the remaining staff facing severe workload pressures and burnout, driving vital talent out of the system prematurely.
Other reasons for the early retirement are attributed to family matters (16%), medical/ health issues (1.4%), and age and length of service (6.6%).
The report, however, warns that while Primary Healthcare faces higher absolute numbers of those at the verge of retirement (2,537), between 2026-2030, Referral hospitals face severe structural risk with 979 staff.
Human Resource in local govt
According to the report, Local governments operate at 57 percent capacity with cities operating at 52 percent.
But despite successfully establishing leadership and community mobilization structures, the majority lack the technical engineering and planning staff required to execute infrastructure and economic development.
The report shows only 19% of district engineers, 30% of City planners, and 53% of district natural resource officers are filled to date compared to 95% of political leaders, 94% of CAOs /Town Clerks, and 99% of Community Development Officers filled respectively.
Early retirement
The report also observed a 488 percent spike in early retirement from 443 in 2021 to 2,166 in 2025.
Primary school teachers account for an overwhelming 73%, with 1,588 exiting in 2024/25 alone.
According to the report, a total of 5,725 staff exited early in 5 years, with the majority being females (40-50 age brackets at 63% and 51% respectively), while males dominated the later post to 50 exists (57% and 63%), and 73% of early retirements occurred between ages 46-55.
Mr Ojok said the main drivers for early retirement are attributed to family matters, constituting 16.08%, immediate age eligibility (6.61%, and politics (3.9%).
‘The report projects 34,340 statutory retirements by 2030, with the teaching service carrying the biggest share with 19,801 officers,’ he added.
Mr Ojok added that 9.2 percent of the total active workforce will retire, with a massive peak of 8,215 exits hitting in 2029, with 13.8% from Public Universities, 12.4% from Referral hospitals, 11.0% from teaching service, and a further 11.0% from ministries/ departments.
This figure, colliding with a pre-existing 306,635 vacancy gap, creates an imminent threat to institutional memory and basic state functionality if succession planning is ignored.
Recommendations
To address the available challenges related to human resources in the government, the report recommended that the relevant authorities prioritize recruitment strictly toward technical cadres, fast-track hiring in hospitals, schools, universities, and science institutions.
The report also calls for the ring-fencing of wage allocations to protect essential frontline staff from budget reallocations and to conduct immediate and periodic establishment rationalisation.
Operationalize sustainable pension reforms by fast-tracking the implementation of the contributory pension schemes, introducing retention incentives for critical cadres to delay early retirement, promoting phased retirement approaches, and reducing processing delays, among others.