Topline Many public sector workers in the United States have exited their jobs since the pandemic due to low pay, stress, burnout and time commitment, among other strains, according to data from research groups, leaving record-high shortages among teachers, healthcare workers and police officers.
The public sectors has not rebounded from the pandemic, with shortages still present in teaching, … [+] healthcare and policing. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Getty Images Key Facts TEACHERS: Researchers from Kansas State University estimated that there are currently 55,289.2 teacher vacancies across the U.S., with the South being the most impacted, with an estimated 19,869 vacancies, according to teacher vacancy data from 30 states for the 2022-23 academic year, nine states and Washington, D.C., for the 2021-2022 school year and three states for years prior to 2021 Last October, in a report examining the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on aspects of education, including staffing, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 18% of public schools had at least one teacher vacancy, and 57% of the public schools located in highly impoverished neighborhoods had at least one teacher vacancy. Among the top reasons teachers cited for wanting to leave their job were stress, disappointment, salary and excessive working hours, a survey of teachers published earlier this year by research organization RANDO found.
HEALTHCARE WORKERS: In the healthcare industry, there is a shortage of 17,000 primary care practitioners, 12,000 dental practitioners and 8,000 mental health practitioners across the country, according to the Department of Health Resources and Services Administration. In the next 10 years, the American Hospital Association predicts America will be short 124,000 physicians. The National Governors Association attributed the exacerbation of the shortage of healthcare workers to the pandemic, burnout and stress.
POLICE: A survey of 182 police agencies in 38 states and Washington, D.C. from the Police Executive Research Forum noted that, although hiring is improving, the 50% increase in police resignation last year compared to 2019 and the total sworn staffing decreasing by 5% over the past three years is outpacing the hiring. In addition to pay, some cite public scrutiny following the protests of 2020 that prompted current and potential cops to rethink the role.
News Peg A small Minnesota town’s entire police department dissolved Wednesday after the chief and other police officers resigned earlier this month, with the chief citing poor officer retention due to non-competitive pay––following a long trend of cops and other public sector employees quitting their jobs.
Key Background The public sector includes jobs in government, protective services (such as policing and firefighting), education (such as teaching or being a custodian for a public school), community service (such as social workers) and health care workers. There were 9.6 million job openings on the last day of June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, 136,000 of which were in healthcare and social assistance and 62,000 of which were in state and local government. LinkedIn data shows several public sector workers leaving those positions for jobs in technology, information, media, financial services, manufacturing and professional services during the first five months of last year. Many noted better pay and opportunities for growth as their motivation to leave the public sector for the private sector. The Center for Economic and Policy Research attributes the slow post-pandemic recovery of public sector jobs to budget cuts and privatization of public services that occurred amidst the Great Recession of 2008. “The negative consequences of both cuts and privatization in the aftermath of the Great Recession meant that the public sector — and, thus, the public — were in a far less resilient place than they could have been when the COVID-19 crisis began. A robust and fully recovered public sector would have put states, territories, and localities in a much better position to weather the storm,” the report, authored and released last month, said.
Further Reading Entire Small Town Minnesota Police Department Quits—Leaving Streets Unpatrolled For Most Of Day (Forbes)