The federal public service has dropped almost 8,000 workers in just 12 months.

The newest Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin says the public service has shrunk by 4.7 per cent overall, employing 167,051 people in June last year and only 159,126 in June this year.

Last year, a total of 11,131 people left the public service and 4,672 were hired.

“Natural attrition” accounted for just over 50 per cent of jobs lost, while there were 4,622 retrenchments.

Public Service Minister Eric Abetz says his portfolio will always require a balance between output and cost-effectiveness.

“The Government is committed to a sustainable public service that continues to deliver for the Australian people,” he said.

“A public service that provides viable front line services and preserves the skills required to meet the Government's priorities and deliver better value for each taxpayer dollar.”

He said the public service will continue to contract, dropping about 16,500 staff before July 2017 or another 8,575 public service jobs in the next three years.

The stats show that there were more redundancies than resignations, suggesting the “natural attrition” line may just be sugar-coating.

There were 4030 resignations in 2013-2014, compared to 4622 redundancies.

It is the highest level of public sector sacking since the Howard Government's first term, and marks the first time in 14 years that retrenchments have outstripped resignations.

The Community and Public Sector Union has accused Mr Abetz of spinning the numbers from the commissioner's report.

“The loss of 8000 jobs is massive,” the union's National Secretary Nadine Flood told Fairfax Media.

“It's the largest loss of federal public sector jobs in over a decade and yet Eric Abetz calls it moderate and reasonable.

“I'd hate to see his version of extreme.

“The Government can try and spin it any way they like but the reality is that the public service is getting hit hard and these figures confirm that.

“You can't lose that many staff and not hurt services.

“For the first time in 15 years the number of people made redundant is greater than the number of people who have resigned.”