BBC growth spurt sees staffing levels hit new peak
A recruitment drive at the BBC has seen its staffing levels balloon past the 22,000 level in just 12 months – despite a raft of cost-cutting measures designed to cut 2,000 posts by 2017.
The BBC employed 21,729 people in 2012, the year in which it broadcast both the Olympics and Golden Jubilee, but rather than falling as expected in 2013 those numbers actually rose to 22,039 – including all permanent staff as well as those on fixed-term and flexible contracts.
Former director general Mark Thompson pledged in 2011 to reduce staffing levels in a public commitment to austerity.
The news came in the wake of a Freedom of Information request by the Guardian which found that the broadcaster splashed out £657,522 in 2013 on ‘recruitment consultants, executive search and headhunting firms’.