2006 Public Hiring Outlook Survey

According to the results of the Employment in 2006 survey, 68 percent of public sector employers plan to hire for new positions in the coming year, this is slightly lower than the number of employers who planned to hire in 2005, when 75 percent of respondents indicated they planned to increase their workforce.

As in 2005, employers expect to do most of their hiring in public safety. In 2006, 41 percent of respondents said they plan to fill new positions in public safety, compared to 31 percent in 2005. The next most prevalent area for hiring this year according to the survey is public works at 24 percent, followed by finance/management (excluding HR) at 19 percent and parks/recreation at 13 percent, human resources at 12 percent, and health services at 10 percent.

The line up is similar to that in 2005, except that in 2005, employers anticipated doing more hiring in the area of parks and recreation (15 percent) than in finance/management (ten percent).

While employers are planning to increase the size of their workforce, the total number of positions added is likely to be a fraction of the total workforce. In 2006, 60 percent of employers said that the number of new positions will represent less than one percent of the current workforce and 25 percent said the new positions constitute two to three percent of the current workforce.

These numbers are similar to 2005, when two-thirds of respondents said the increase represented less than one percent of the current workforce and an additional 20 percent said that the number of new positions would represent between two to three percent of the new workforce.

When asked about lay-offs, only 16 percent of respondents said they anticipate eliminating positions this year compared to 18 percent in 2005. Of those who said they anticipate lay-offs, 84 percent said that the number would represent less than one percent of the current workforce and 17 percent said it would represent between two to three percent of their current workforce.

In 2005, the numbers were similar, with 60 percent of employers who planned lay-offs reporting the number of positions eliminated would represent less than one percent of their current workforce and 23 percent said it would constitute between two to three percent of their current workforce.

Survey respondents were also asked if they had any vacancies in their organizations and 55 percent reported that the number of vacancies represented less than 3 percent of their workforce. In 2005, nearly two-thirds of agencies surveyed reported that the number of vacancies constituted less than three percent of their workforce.

However, at least a few agencies have significant numbers of vacancies. This year, 72 agencies – or 16 percent of respondents, said that they have vacancies totaling between 5-10 percent of their total workforce. When asked if the positions were purposefully being unfilled for budgetary reasons 39 percent of survey respondents said yes, 57 percent said no, and 4 percent did not respond.

The Employment in 2006 survey was conducted in December 2005 and January 2006, the survey was announced in IPMA-HR publications and 451 members responded.