The government spends almost £800m a year on advertising public sector jobs, a report has found.
The total spent on advertising vacant posts by the government’s Central Office of Information alone has gone up almost 300% under the Labour government, from £111m in 1997 to £322m last year.
The cost is more than twice that spent by the private sector, which represents 80% of the workforce.
The Conservatives said they would stop all print advertising for Whitehall jobs and set up a free website for jobseekers if they won the next election.
Recruitment firm Reed Personnel Services, which published the report, estimated that the public sector advertising bill for vacant jobs was £790m.
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James Reed, the company’s executive chairman, said a “supersite” for all public sector jobs in the UK could be created for of less than £5m a year.
Typical local authorities with about 14,000 employees have been told by they could save about £4m a year each if they switched to online advertising.
