Development trajectories of Lithuanian public sector governance

The purpose of this paper - to analyse and evaluate changes that have occurred in the Lithuanian public sector’s staffing, employee pay and institutional management in the context of the European countries. The article analyses the data of different years: some data cover the period of 10 and more years, while other – the last 6 or even 1 year. The newest tendencies were analysed, seeking to indicate the contemporary changes in the Lithuanian public sector. The analysis of employees’ changes in four distinguished groups of Lithuanian municipalities: large cities, medium-sized municipalities, small municipalities and resorts was presented. It was concluded that the decrease in the number of public sector staff does not necessarily means higher efficiency of the public sector organizations. Not the number of employees, but their qualification and competence determine the quality of decisions in the public sector. On the other hand, to achieve a balance between the staff number and the efficiency of services in the public sector, a middle-path policy should be used.