The Australian Public Service Commission released its December update on job numbers this week, showing that 259 people were employed in the public service in Launceston, down from 327 in 2016.

The majority work at the Centrelink service centre on Boland Street and the Centrelink call centre in Kings Meadows, while there are also employees at the NDIA and Home Affairs.

The Community and Public Sector Union claims that the falling number of direct employees coincides with the government increasingly using labour hire companies in the public service, whose staff members are on individual agreements with no coverage under enterprise bargaining agreements.

The number of staff employed through labour hire companies is not publicly released.

CPSU Tasmania secretary Zac Batchelor said that increasingly relying on labour hire staff cost the government more in the long run due to high turnover of these employees.

"A labour hire company might offer a worker on $10,000 a year less, but if they don't have the same entitlement to sick leave or holiday pay, then after six months they're going to realise that they're being dudded and move on, meaning you have to hire and train someone else," he said.

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"It goes around in a cycle, but if you've had to train four times as many people, it's going to be less efficient."

The Abbott government placed a cap on public service employment levels in 2013-14, but it did not cover the use of labour hire.

The rate of decrease in Launceston is far slower than other parts of Australia since 2013, however, such as Darwin which has seen a 30 per cent drop, parts of Sydney which have seen a 50 per cent drop and areas of Melbourne where there has been a 25 per cent drop.

Employment levels have also been decreasing in regional Tasmania, falling from 1130 in 2007, to 596 in 2016 and now 509.

In Hobart, the levels peaked in 2011 before decreasing again.

The Australian Public Service has expanded its workforce in response to the increased demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. The CPSU understands that directly-employed casual staff have been added in Launceston.

The pandemic caused a delay in the release of the December job figures.

A spokesperson for the government said the processing of more than 800,000 JobSeeker claims since mid-March was evidence that the public service was working adequately.

"Governments have always used a blended workforce of permanent ongoing, temporary, and labour hire and contracted staff to ensure we can move quickly to deliver support and value for money to the people who need it," he said.