Help wanted: Peninsula counties struggle to fill jobs
James City, York departments have dozens of openings
Nearly four years after the start of the pandemic, government shutdowns and subsequent labor shortages, James City and York counties continue to struggle with filling government positions.
In James City County, there are 69 full- and part-time vacant positions. Patrick O. Teague, the director of human resources, said most departments have at least one position that needs to be filled, with general services having the most vacancies, followed by the police and social services departments.
“Both entry level and highly skilled positions have been difficult to fill,” Teague said. “The employment market shifted post pandemic, with strong national jobs reports each quarter, creating a very competitive job seekers market.”
York County has 34 open roles in multiple departments, including in public works, the sheriff ’s office, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office, the county attorney’s office, clerk of circuit court, finance/ payroll, library services, community services, and planning and development services.
“The department with the most vacancies at this time is community services, which has several divisions to include child and family services, juvenile services, housing and revitalization, and parks and recreation,” said Rose McKinney, York’s director of human resources. “Parks and recreation is also preparing for numerous part-time summer positions in the coming months.”
McKinney acknowledges that recruitment remains an issue across the country, though doesn’t necessarily blame York’s job vacancies on the pandemic, but rather on the skillset required for certain jobs.
“While the public sector was not as quick to recover from the pandemic compared to the private sector, recruitment remains a challenge nationwide,” McKinney said. “There are some positions that are hard to fill simply due to the nature of the job and especially when they require specific skills, knowledge and experience. Another challenge with filling certain positions is because multiple employers are trying to recruit from the same limited candidate pool.”
Regardless of the reasons, a lack of employees often puts a strain on local governments.
“It can reduce services, and/ or slow current service delivery,” Teague said. “In addition, it creates more stress for current employees.”
For quite some time, Christopher Johnson, director of economic development for James City County, had been the sole employee in his department. The county recently hired an assistant director of economic development, a position that had been vacant for more than a year, but the department still needs to hire two additional employees.
Over the past few years, James City County increased its minimum starting wage from roughly $9 per hour to $14.78. Additionally, “we have select positions that have signing bonuses for new employees, and have an incentive referral program that rewards current employees for successful employment referrals,” Teague said.
McKinney said York County “offers monetary new hire incentives as well as experienced hire incentives for those candidates that come with years of related experience for that position. In addition, we offer monetary referral incentives for eligible employees, certification pay and paid training incentives. As an added effort, the county’s human resources department hosts and attends several job fairs each year to recruit talent.”
York County holds its own job fair twice a year for all of its departments, which “has yielded successful results for us thus far,” McKinney said.
While James City and York counties still have many positions to fill, Williamsburg has fared much better, with only four full-time positions that are empty at the moment.
Teague said that in addition to attending local and national job fairs in search of employees — as well as seeking out potential employees through the local schools and Virginia Values Veterans — a program that connects employers with retiring military members and their spouses, James City County is in the process of replacing its recruiting software to make it simpler to apply for a job through the county.
Making the process to apply for positions easier and more appealing isn’t the only way to draw candidates in, Teague said.
“We need to effectively share what a great place James City County is to create a career that provides continual growth opportunities while making a difference to your community every day,” he said. “We have opportunities for any person at different stages of their career journey, from those just starting out to a retiree who wants a part-time position, and everything in between.”