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The growing number of civil servants tends to be regarded as the main reason for the increase of the payroll in local authorities. Limiting the payroll would necessarily mean reducing the number of civil servants. This article analyzes the cognitive conditions and the social reasons of this well-spread diagnosis: how are produced these figures? Who uses them to promote this cause? Using the sociology of quantification and the sociology of social problems, it uncovers the reductionist basis on which this diagnosis is based. The latter reveals the influence of new public management on public administration as well as the tensions between local and central governments on local issues governance.