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The reports, which don’t include the spending cuts in the budget, offer a picture of how many jobs departments are losing before they begin to implement the 2012 budget measures. They also confirm the overall job losses will be much higher than the 19,200 the Conservatives have said would disappear from payroll.

Those 10,400 job cuts are from the previous rounds of spending cuts the Conservatives imposed since coming to power, including savings from strategic reviews and nearly $2 billion from a freeze on departments’ operating budgets. Those reductions are still making their way through the system as departments prepare to absorb the latest cuts from the March budget.

“It is disingenuous to focus on the 19,200 job losses resulting from the budget,” said Macdonald. “Those losses are just part of what is going to happen over the next three years. Several rounds of previously announced cuts will also eliminate jobs over the same period.”

But those additional 10,400 job losses are the latest piece in the puzzle describing the cumulative impact of years of spending cuts. Unions have long believed the magnitude of the cuts would be much greater than the government was letting on, but the loss of 29,600 jobs isn’t enough to save the $11 billion the government wants over the next three years.

The average public servant costs about $100,000 annually, including salary, benefits, pension and overhead.

For the first time, the Finance Department has offered a breakdown of the $5.2 billion in reductions.