State and local governments are struggling to hire and retain workers amid a tight labor market, even as private-sector employment is reaching pre-pandemic levels
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There are “many things that we still need to do to recover from the pandemic — and they are largely in the hands of the public sector, because the private sector has almost fully recovered,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, said. That’s “despite trillions, with a ‘t,’ that the government spent to provide relief during Covid.
The year-over-year growth rate for hourly private-sector salaries and wages in each of the past four quarters has exceeded that for state and local governments by the largest margin on record,“Really across the board, many governments are often facing intense competition for workers,” Mike Maciag, who studies the government sector at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said.
Earlier economic downturns also saw a subsequent drop in public-sector employment. But economists say that this time is different because ofas part of its series of Covid-19 relief packages. This time around, “their revenues are up, even without the federal money that came in,” Rachel Greszler, a labor economist at the Heritage Foundation, said. “So it’s not a lack of funds for sure” that’s impeding hiring.
“Schools have seen an exodus of teachers,” said Pollak, the ZipRecruiter economist. “I’m not quite sure how our schools are functioning fully in person with 400,000 fewer staff on payroll; it makes me worry about the quality of education.”
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