Making the Case for Investing in the Municipal Workforce

Intro

Making the case for investing in the municipal workforce requires understanding the challenges that cities face in order to build towards having dedicated staff, funding, and other resources to address these challenges. It is important to build understanding internally among city leadership and staff, as well as broadly across the community, to ensure residents see that their tax dollars are being used in ways that serve their needs.

Cities Face Critical Workforce Challenges

Cities (excluding schools and hospitals) employ over 2.4 million workers who keep communities running every day. However, cities face significant workforce challenges, including high rates of retirement, fewer young people (PDF) seeking or staying in public-sector jobs, chronic vacancies, and difficulty competing with the private sector. For example, local governments take an average of 130 days to fill open positions with qualified candidates, compared to 96 days in state government and 36 days in the private sector.

Additional key municipal workforce challenges include:

• Limited awareness of public sector careers resulting in insufficient talent pipelines
• Inefficiency (PDF) of hiring qualified workers due to outdated processes and systems
• Insufficient and/or outdated policies and practices to ensure workers can perform their jobs well and have opportunities for advancement
• Limited access to supports to mitigate workforce barriers, such as affordable child care, reliable transportation, and stable housing

Workforce Challenges have Significant Impacts

Without appropriate investment in the municipal workforce, there can be substantial — sometimes life-and-death — impacts for municipal workers, residents, and the community overall.

Lacking Emergency Response

Cities experiencing shortages of 9-1-1 operators have reported longer emergency response times, increased delays for non-emergency calls, and increased strain on the already limited number of workers who may be forced to work overtime to ensure continuous emergency response.

Worsening Quality of Programs and Services

Residents rely on a strong municipal workforce for basic services, such as clean water and consistent trash pickup, as well as a wide variety of programs that enable them to participate in education, work, and community life. However, staffing limitations can have outsized effects on critical programs and services, affecting residents’ health and overall quality of life.

Credit Downgrades

Workforce challenges span city departments and roles, including administrative agencies. Difficulties retaining qualified staff in administrative roles can have significant immediate and long-lasting impacts on a city’s fiscal health and stability. For example, a lack of accountants can lead to credit downgrades and the city’s ability to borrow money or access federal grants.

Cybersecurity Risks

Cities particularly struggle to compete with the private sector for qualified Information Technology (IT) staff. City governments are experiencing cyberattacks that can have dangerous impacts on public safety operations, lead to breaches of personal data, and result in millions of dollars (PDF) in recovery costs.  

Declining Trust in Government

Although local government maintains higher levels of trust than state or federal governments, residents’ trust in government (including local government) can decline when cities struggle to meet residents’ needs.

Cities are Stepping Up for their Residents

Though many municipalities are grappling with challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified employees, cities are stepping up to address these concerns with urgency and become employers of choice for workers. This toolkit offers a framework and resources to help local leaders understand and invest in their workers across the employee lifecycle.