There has been a dramatic fall in the number of people applying for jobs as civil servants, prison officers and members of the Defence Forces.
This suggests that the increasing demand for workers from the private sector, which has affected recruitment to nursing, is extending across the public service.
The Civil Service Commission, which has compiled its first new panel in four years, is expected to start the process again to have enough clerical staff.
The general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, Mr Blair Horan, says that even when people join the civil service, some departments "experience problems holding on to them as there are better paid jobs elsewhere. The starting rate of pay for clerical grades is less than £5 an hour."
It was the Department of Finance, he said, which insisted on making a new, lower paid entry grade part of the restructuring deal under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
Last June 10,000 people applied to the civil service for interview, compared with 27,000 in 1994 - and 6,000 people turned up for interview this year, compared with 19,000 in 1994.
The number of applications for the Army this year was 2,023, compared with 9,306 in 1993. There was no recruitment in 1994. This year, for the first time, no closing date has been put on applications by the Department of Defence. Applications for cadetships in 1994 were 2,090, compared with 854 this year.
Less than half of the student positions available for psychiatric nursing were filled this autumn - and a second series of interviews had to be held to find enough suitable applicants to fill general nursing courses.