The number of employees in Libya's public sector jumped to 2.1 million at the end of November, according to data from the Ministry of Finance for the Government of National Unity (GNU).

The salaries for these employees accounted for 53.8% of Libya's budget.

The release of this data comes as international bodies, most notably the International Monetary Fund, called on the GNU to reduce spending on public sector wages.

Almost a third of Libya's working population relies exclusively on government paid salaries.

The GNU recently raised the minimum wage to 900 dinars per month, while the maximum public sector salary has reached 2,880 dinars.

Members of the House of Representatives also agreed to increase the minimum wage from 450 to 1,000 dinars, but discussions on the remaining provisions of the unified salary law have not been completed.

GNU data estimates that according to its new unified salary scale, 1.9 million public sector employees have received raises during 2023, compared to about 126,000 in 2022.

Total salary expenditures for 2023 amount to 57 billion dinars. That figure does not include data from troubled companies, the Social Security Fund, the Solidarity Fund, the General Electricity Company and the banking sector.