The Municipal Workforce Through the Pandemic: Where Are We Now?

Economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has created employment loss across the United States, but not all sectors have been affected equally. Municipal employers have struggled the most to retain workers. Through the first two years of the pandemic (March 2020 – March 2022), local government employment declined by 300,300, driving municipal employment down by 4.48 percent — 18x greater than total nonfarm employment loss (-0.25%). The current municipal labor shortage will negatively impact local governments’ ability to deliver for their communities unless local leaders take the necessary steps to rebuild staffing capacity.