New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland could lose well over a thousand jobs each under the Coalition’s planned public service job cuts, according to new research from The Australia Institute.

The Institute has launched an analysis of the economic impacts of the Coalition’s proposed public service job cuts, and is today releasing some initial findings.

The Coalition is yet to make it clear whether the 12 thousand job cuts Joe Hockey has promised as a ‘starting point’ will be focused in Canberra or spread around Australia. It’s also unclear whether the cuts will be made as redundancies or through so-called ‘natural attrition’.

“With parliament rising and politicians heading off to campaign for the election, it’s time for the Coalition to clear this issue up,” The Australia Institute’s Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss said.

The initial phase of The Australia Institute’s research reveals where these job cuts would hit hardest if they are spread across every electorate. This was done using historic separation rates.

The results show that New South Wales would be the hardest hit state, predicting 1830 job losses. Victoria and Queensland are predicted to lose 1550 and 1341 respectively.

Western Australia would be set to lose more than 800 jobs, while South Australia and Tasmania would lose 534 and 203 respectively.

The Northern Territory is predicted to lose more than 300 jobs and the ACT would see more than 5400 jobs axed.

“When Ford announced its decision to shed 1200 jobs there was national outrage. Unfortunately our analysis suggests that every state on the east coast will lose substantially more jobs than that if the Coalition spreads its planned job cuts across the country,” Dr Denniss said.

“With the election looming, the Coalition needs to clear up this ambiguous policy and explain the real effects of its planned public service job cuts.”