State and local leaders, as well as members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, held a rally on the Boston Common Thursday to encourage residents to apply for public service jobs.
The rally comes as the Massachusetts contends with labor shortages in this area. There are currently more than 1,300 vacancies for state-level public service jobs, ranging from administrative roles to health care workers to inspection officers.
At the local level, there are also a high number of open positions. Mark Bernard, the executive director of AFSCME Council 93, said the city of Boston is struggling to fill around 300 positions across multiple municipal offices.
In an effort to attract applicants, Bernard said the union has focused on improving wages, benefits and working conditions for members.
"These positions offer decent wages with regular pay increases, quality health insurance coverage, strong and effective union representation, and the promise of a secure retirement," he said. "But working in public service is about more than just a paycheck and good benefits."
Bernadine Desanges, the city's chief of diversity, spoke at the rally about the importance of these roles to the community.
"Public service workers are the heroes — and often unsung heroes — who make our communities safe, healthy and strong," she said. "Our municipal workforce are the people who keep our water clean, our streets safe, our schools lively, and our communities thriving."
Bernard said the sheer amount of current vacancies has a negative impact on the workers who are forced to fill in the gaps.
"For far too long they've been doing the work that used to be done by two or more people," he said. "It's been especially tough to staff the 24/7 facilities, like those for people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities."
Despite the rally's focus on labor shortages within the state, AFSCME Council 93 leaders say that understaffing in the public sector is not unique to Massachusetts. Currently, there are roughly 1 million unfilled public sector jobs all across the United States at the local, state and federal levels.
Jim Durkin, the legislative director for AFSCME Council 93, says Thursday's rally was just a small part of a countrywide effort to encourage workers to apply to these jobs.
"This is part of a national tour that our union is doing," he said. "We've got 22 stops between Boston and San Diego. This is a national problem."
People interested in public sector jobs can apply for state-level positions at mass.gov/MassCareers or Boston-specific positions at Boston.gov.
