Escalating job vacancies instigate salary competition among state and local authorities

At the doors of Missouri’s correctional facilities, sizable banners beseech aid: “IMMEDIATE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES”… “EXCELLENT SALARY & PERKS.”

No prior experience is required, and anyone 18 years or older is encouraged to apply. Extended working hours are a certainty.

Historically, prison guard positions might not have been associated with “excellent salary,” but a sequence of state-initiated salary increments, triggered by mass vacancies, has changed the game. The Missouri Department of Corrections experienced a record influx of applicants last month.

“Our wage increase resulted in a surge of applicants, including those who had been unemployed for some time,” noted Maj. Albin Narvaez, chief of custody at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, the facility for processing and assessing new inmates.

Across America, public sector employers are confronting similar challenges in recruiting sufficient staff, resulting in one of the most substantial rises in state government wages in the past decade and a half. Numerous cities, counties, and school districts are also escalating salaries to retain and recruit workers, amidst fierce competition from private sector employers.

The salary competition emerges as governments and taxpayers grapple with the repercussions of unfilled positions.

In Kansas City, Missouri, an insufficient number of 911 operators led to a doubling of the average hold times for emergency calls. In a county in Florida, frequent delays in school bus routes caused children to arrive late due to a shortage of bus drivers. In Arkansas, children suffering from abuse and neglect spent extended periods in foster care owing to a lack of caseworkers. In various cities and states, inadequate road crew staff meant that road damages took longer to repair than many motorists might prefer.

“These are challenging roles we’re discussing,” stated Leslie Scott Parker, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives.

The persistence of unfilled roles “eventually impacts the quality of services or response times,” she continued.

Workforce shortages have exacerbated across diverse roles due to a wave of retirements and resignations that started during the pandemic. While many businesses, from eateries to hospitals, have promptly responded by raising wages and offering incentives to lure employees, government entities, by nature, are slower to act, requiring legislative approval for salary increments, a process that can take several months to complete — and then several more months to take effect.

In the interim, job vacancies have surged.

In Georgia, employee attrition peaked at 25% in 2022. Thousands departed from the Department of Corrections, driving its vacancy rate to approximately 50%. The state initiated a series of wage increases. This year, all state employees and teachers received at least a $2,000 raise, with correction officers and state troopers receiving raises of $4,000 and $6,000 respectively.

The Georgia Department of Corrections employed an advertising agency to enhance recruitment and conducted an average of 125 job fairs monthly. The efforts are starting to bear fruit. In the first week of July, the department received 318 correctional officer applications — almost twice the usual weekly amount, reported department Public Affairs Director Joan Heath.

Close to one in four positions — over 2,500 jobs — remained unoccupied in the Missouri Department of Corrections towards the end of last year, which was double the pre-pandemic vacancy rate in 2019.

Missouri granted state workers a 7.5% salary increase in 2022. This spring, Gov. Mike Parson signed an emergency expenditure bill incorporating an additional 8.7% increment, as well as an extra $2 per hour for individuals working evening and night shifts at prisons, mental health institutions, and other facilities. The vacancy rate for entry-level correctional officers is now reducing, and the average number of applications for all state positions has risen by 18% since the start of last year.

At the Fulton prison, where staff shortfalls have necessitated a standard 52-hour work week, newly recruited employees can earn approximately $60,000 annually — a figure approximately equivalent to the state’s median household income. The prison is also proposing to offer free child care to correctional officers willing to work night shifts.

Low prison staffing levels can become “a risky situation” for both inmates and guards, cautioned Narvaez.

Public safety issues have also surfaced in Kansas City, where a country music enthusiast, attacked before a concert last month, waited four minutes for his 911 call to be answered and an hour for an ambulance to arrive. Roughly one-quarter of 911 call center positions are unfilled — “a significant contributor” to the extended wait times for call responses, revealed Tamara Bazzle, assistant manager of the communications unit for the Kansas City Police Department.

In Biddeford, Maine, the 15-strong team of 911 dispatchers dwindled to just eight employees in July as individuals left the “high-pressure job” for less stressful or better-paid alternatives, Police Chief JoAnne Fisk stated. The city now offers fully certified dispatchers $41 an hour on a part-time basis to cover the personnel gaps — $10 per hour more than what new workers would typically earn.

This month, Biddeford also implemented a $2,000 bonus for city employees who refer others who secure jobs. This follows Biddeford’s adoption of a four-day work week with paid lunch breaks last year to make jobs more attractive, explained City Manager Jim Bennett.

To attract employees, other governments have relaxed college degree prerequisites and spruced up dull job descriptions.

Nationally, the turnover rate in state and local governments is twice the average of the previous two decades, according to federal labor statistics.

In exit interviews, the most frequently mentioned reason for leaving was uncompetitive wages, as per a survey of 249 state and local government human resource managers conducted by the Washington, D.C. -based nonprofit, MissionSquare Research Institute. The toughest positions to fill included police and corrections officers, doctors, nurses, engineers, and jobs requiring commercial driver’s licenses.

On Florida’s east coast, the Brevard County transit system and school district are vying for bus drivers. On days with driver shortages, the transit system has reduced the frequency of bus stops on some routes. The school system, on the other hand, has requested some bus drivers to cover a second route after dropping off students at school, often causing the second batch of students to arrive late.

Since 2022, the county has twice increased bus driver wages to a current rate of $17.47 per hour. The school board recently countered with a $5 raise to a minimum $20 per hour for the forthcoming school year. The aim is to employ sufficient drivers to ensure consistent punctuality for school students, noted school system communications director Russell Bruhn.

In Arkansas, the aim is to place foster children into permanent homes within less than a year. But during the first three months of this year, the state achieved this goal for merely 32% of foster children — significantly below the national standard of over 40%. More than a fifth of the roughly 1,400 roles in the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services remain unoccupied.

Many new employees quit in less than two years due to heavy workloads and the “very challenging, emotionally draining work,” Mischa Martin, the Department of Human Services’ deputy secretary of youth and families, informed lawmakers last month.

“An experienced, knowledgeable workforce,” she stated, “would be better equipped to manage cases more effectively to expedite children’s return to their homes.”

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More about Wage competition

• Wage Competition in the Public Sector
• The Impact of Job Vacancies on Public Services
• Labor Shortage in Government Jobs
• Pay Raises in the Public Sector