The other big risers were in the Ministry of Education, which was up 202 and Inland Revenue, up 159.
Without intervention, Mr Rennie expected the cap to breached by the end of the year and to top it by 206 positions by mid next year.
"I believe that we should continue to maintain the cap on core Government administration until at least the end of this term," he told State Services Minister Jonathan Coleman in a recent Cabinet paper.
"Responsible ministers should engage with chief executives to emphasise the government's commitment to the capping policy."
Dr Coleman this morning said that combined "with a focus on departmental baselines and Better Public Service Programme results, the cap on core government administration positions remains a useful part of the overall performance story across the public service".
Adding in the handful of agencies outside the cap, FTE numbers were up 175 to 44,500.
Meanwhile, the wider public service workforce which includes the likes of teachers, police, doctors and nurses increased by 1 per cent to 226,225 compared with a 2.1 per cent increase in the private sector.
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The public service as at June 2013
* 44,500 full time equivalent employees - up 2.7 per cent
* $68,561 average base salary - up 2.15 per cent
* 696 redundancies in the preceding year
* $33m total cost of redundancy payments
* 45 years - the average age of public service employees