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Mark Farrington, the city’s director of human resources, said Lakeland is facing a series of unmatched challenges in hiring and retaining public employees. The widely reported labor shortage is not limited to the private sector, according to Farrington, and he expects it to have long-term impacts.
“This is not a short-term thing, folks,” he told city officials on Tuesday. “This will more than likely go on for the next 15 years.”
The baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, are leaving in droves, according to Farrington. They have dropped from 23% down to roughly 20% of the city’s workforce, and that number continues to decline. Some are retiring while others are choosing to pursue higher-paying jobs in the private sector.
“Every department has seen some cherry-picking of its staff,” Farrington said. “The City of Lakeland staff will continue to be legitimate targets for the private sector.”
Commissioner Phillip Walker asked if the city’s employee loss was due to an issue of competitive wages. Farrington said Lakeland doesn’t typically measure itself against private-sector wages, which fluctuate with demand, but claimed the city pays among the 85th to 90th percentage for government jobs when a full wages and benefits package is considered.
The baby boomers leaving is compounded by younger generations of adults — Millennials and Generation Z — who appear to be choosing to delay their entry into the workforce, according to Farrington. This means candidates from these generations lack the experience or skills desired when applying for city jobs.
“We don’t necessarily want to train people,” he said. “We want people who know how to be successful and bring skillsets with them.”
Lakeland has 30 job openings posted on the city’s website, lakelandgov.net, as of 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Of these, 11 positions are marked part-time or seasonal while 19 offer full-time employment. The offered pay ranges from $8.65 an hour to a minimum salary of more than $84,000 a year.
Polk County’s unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in May 2021, slightly higher than the statewide average of 4.9%, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. It’s dropped dramatically since a year ago when it stood at 18.4% during the height of the pandemic.
The city has seen a record-breaking number of applicants decline job offers, according to Farrington. So far, in the fiscal year 2021, the city has had 39 people decline out of the 376 offers made – more than 10%. It’s nearly triple the highest rate seen in the past four years — previously 3.9% declined in 2018.
Farrington said he believes a post-pandemic impact is partially to blame.
“The ability to work from home and compensation issues are the primary reasons we are getting rejections,” he said.
Mayor Bill Mutz, who ran an auto sales business for more than 40 years, said he believes the government has artificially incentivized people not to work at a level never seen before.
“People experienced an environment they liked to be in, like a remote work environment,” Mutz said. “When those jobs don’t come about at the level they expect or with the economic rewards, they will return to the workplace.”
The mayor predicted that there will be an uptick in the ability to attract people back to the workplace within the next year or two.
Farrington said the city is taking steps to changes its recruitment practices, such as using LinkedIn for the first time and re-engaging with its current staff. He said the city’s employee handbook is also getting updated for the first time since the 1990s.
A full list of current city job openings can be found online at www.lakelandgov.net/departments/human-resources/job-opportunities.