One of the best ongoing sources of information on state and local government HR policies and practices comes from the MissionSquare Research Institute. The survey comes out annually in July, in partnership with the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE) and PSHRA (The Public Sector Human Resources Association).

A couple of details to note: 79 percent of responses come from local governments, largely since there are so many more of them. Also, while respondents answered the survey between early March and early April 2025, many of the observations logically stem from the previous year, which is also true of the surveys issued annually since 2009.

Here are some of the major differences in this year’s survey when compared to previous years.

A decline in larger broad-based pay increases. In 2023, 62 percent of HR professionals reported that they had offered broad-based pay increases, compared to 53 percent in 2024 and 47 percent in the 2025 survey. (Offers of a 4 to 6 percent salary hike dropped from 55 percent in the 2024 edition to 40 percent this year.)

Less focus on compensation. The percentage of respondents who conducted compensation and classification studies declined from 65 percent in 2023 to 54 percent in 2024 and 2025.

De-prioritization of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In 2021, 66 percent of HR officials surveyed said the category of diversity, equity and inclusion was “important.” That dropped to 59 percent in 2022 and 2023. While a slight rewording of the question compromises some comparability, the statistics still reflect a change in 2024 and 2025 that was likely affected by a significant political backlash. In these last two years, respondents were asked whether they considered DEI “very important.” In 2024, 41 percent said it was, with that dropping to 28 percent in 2025.

While prioritization of DEI has lessened, 2025 survey data shows that the composition of the workplace, based on HR responses, has become more reflective of the community by both gender and race or ethnicity.  For example, in the race/ethnicity category 41 percent said it had grown more reflective in 2021 compared with 51 percent in 2023 and 63 percent in 2025.

Turnover problems have generally lessened. In every survey since 2022, the percentage of respondents who reported that they had more “quits” than the year before has dropped. It was 69 percent in 2022, dropping to 45 percent, 33 percent and 23 percent, respectively in 2023, 2024 and 2025. (Those figures don’t include retirements.)

The shift of health benefit costs to employees has grown in the last several years. In the 2022 survey, 9 percent of HR officials responded that shift was occurring. That grew to 12 percent in 2023 and 2024, and to 15 percent in 2025. 

The number of hard-to-fill positions has dropped since the pandemic years. For example, in 2022, “most occupations surveyed were considered problematic.” While 13 were considered exceedingly hard to fill that year, only four are at that toughest hiring threshold in 2025. Of course, there are still stresses. The 2025 survey lists nine fields in which more than half the respondents cited a difficult time hiring. At top of the list are engineering (71 percent) followed by policing (66 percent) and healthcare/nursing (66 percent).  (In 2009, “no positions were considered hard-to-fill by more than 5% of respondents.”)

Education requirements have continued to drop. In 2023, 29 percent of respondents dropped education requirements for some positions. That rose to 50 percent in 2024 and 54 percent in 2025.

#StateandLocalGovernmentHumanResource #PublicSectorHR #StateandLocalGovernmentWorkforce #CityGovernmentHumanResource #CountyGovernmentHumanResource #StateLocalHRPoliciesAndPractices #MissionSquareResearchInstitue #AnnualHROfficialSurvey #NationalAssociationStatePersonnelExecutives #NASPE #PublicSectorHRAssociation #PSHRA #StateandLocalWorkforceChanges #StateandLocalHRPolicyChanges #StateLocalEducationRequirementDecline #StateandLocalHumanResourceManagementChanges #CityGovernmentHumanResourceChanges #CountyGovernmentHumanResourceChanges #StateGovernmentHumanResourceChanges #StateLocalDiversityEquityInclusion #StateLocalRecruitmentChanges #StateLocalCompensationChanges #StateLocalHealthBenefitCostShifts #StateLocalTurnoverDecline #CityTuroverDecline #CountyTurnoverDecline #StateandLocalManagementNews #StateandLocalHumanResourceNews #BarrettandGreeneInc