Michigan officials and union leaders are raising awareness of staffing shortages in public sector jobs. The state’s job search portal shows over 630 openings.
Jacob Brown works within the state Department of Natural Resources. He estimates only around a third of recruit academy classes make it three years on the job.
So, it puts a burden on the longtime people who have been there, puts a burden on us to train people for making the job a little bit easier for the public, and then we don’t get a really good chance to get out and get fully deep into these projects that probably could’ve been done a lot better.
Brown says changes like boosting the public pension system could help boost retention. Meanwhile, state officials say legislative changes like rolling back taxes on retirement income are already making public sector jobs more desirable