In January, the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) published a report and hosted a webinar on the views of Michigan local government officials regarding workforce issues and challenges.
The results come from the Spring 2017 edition of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), which surveyed local government leaders from 1,372 local jurisdictions in Michigan. The survey covered issues ranging from employee pay rates and fringe benefits to recruitment and retention challenges.
Some of the report’s key findings include:
- While most local officials believe that their current workforce size is adequate to deliver the desired level of services, 35% of jurisdictions identify at least one service area where their workforce size is inadequate.
- Almost half (47%) of officials from Michigan counties are concerned that their workforce size is inadequate for police services
- Almost half (48%) of local jurisdictions report problems recruiting qualified employees. Contributing factors in these jursidictions include a shortage of qualified candidates (70%) and lack of competitive compensation (46%).
- Despite a multi-year trend of employee pay increases tracked since 2011, 25% of local officials believe pay rates in their jurisdiction are too low today.
View more trends in the report here.
MPPS researchers Tom Ivacko, Debra Horner, and Natalie Fitzpatrick also presented the results and answered viewers’ questions during a January 31 webinar. The webinar can be accessed on the CLOSUP website here.