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SLGE Publishes 2020 State and Local Government Workforce Survey

On April 30, 2020, the Center for State & Local Government Excellence (SLGE) released its survey report, State and Local Government Workforce: 2020 Survey.  The report includes 2020 data on emerging issues such as flexible work policies, hiring and recruiting challenges, retirement plan or health benefit changes, and separations from service.  

The survey indicates an increase in telework among state and local government employees to 27%, up from 22% in 2016 when the question was first added.  The report cites that the telework trend, among others, may relate to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that overlapped with the research and may change significantly due to the ongoing pandemic, and unprecedented pressures on state and local government budgets.

According to SLGE, state and local governments report that they continue to face considerable challenges filling various key positions, such as engineers, information technology employees, police officers and registered nurses.  Over the past year, the survey finds that 77% of public employers have hired employees, 46% have hired contract or temporary employees, and 33% have rehired retired staff members.   

Other key findings include:

  • 85% of respondents consider that their benefits are competitive in the labor market.
  • For current employees, 75% of state and local governments have not made any retirement plan changes in the past year.  For new employees, 69% have made no changes.  Of those that made changes, some of the most common types include: increases in employee contributions (9% among new employees and 8% among current employees); decreases in pension benefits (7% among new employees and 3% among current employees); increases in pension eligibility requirements (3% for new employees and 1% for current employees); and increases in employer contributions (8% for both new and current employees).
  • Only 23% reported that their employees are financially prepared for retirement.

The electronic survey was recently conducted among members of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE).  Of the 222 respondents who participated in the survey, 77% represented local governments, 17% represented state governments, and 6% represented the federal government or non-governmental sectors. 

The report is available here.