Business View Civil Municipal - July 2023

23 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7 TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN EMPLOYEES, GOVERNMENTS NEED TO REMOVE HIRING BARRIERS AND OFFER ROBUST BENEFITS PACKAGES Source - americancityandcounty.com, Michael Keating, First published June 20, 2023 The pace of hiring into the government workforce continues to be at a snail’s pace compared to the number of job vacancies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that for April 2023, there were 963,000 government job openings and just 376,000 new hires (estimated, preliminary). Dutch Ross, a vice president at Atlanta-based Purchasing Power, says silent barriers may hinder prospective employees from applying for a government job. Purchasing Power is a voluntary benefit company that operates an employee purchase program for consumer products and services through payroll deduction. “For example, to apply for a job at the municipal airport may require someone to have already passed the civil service exam and be on a list that’s kept by the city,” Ross explains. “If someone does not immediately meet this requirement, they cannot apply, and they may not be interested in completing the prerequisite and applying in the future— particularly if they are unfamiliar with the process requirements and timeline.” OPENING LINES