Data Inform Public Sector Employers on How Workers 35 and Under Were Recruited

Public sector workers can aid their employers’ recruitment efforts by recommending public careers and the distinct benefits of public sector work to entice and retain workers of diverse backgrounds, MissionSquare Research shows.  

The retirement, health and other benefits of public sector jobs, or the salary and personal satisfaction benefits of those jobs, likely motivate individuals from varied racial and ethnic backgrounds in different ways to join or pursue a role in the public sector workforce, according to the research brief “35 and Under in the Public Sector Comparisons by Race and Ethnicity.”   

For example, retirement savings benefits are ranked differently by different racial and ethnic groups. More than three-quarters (78%) of white employees report other financial priorities ahead of saving for retirement compared to 72% of African American employees and 64% of Hispanic employees, the MissionSquare research found.

The survey is intended to inform “[state and local public sector] employers about the different places that people are coming from, … and their motivating factors in what they’re looking for in their employer, and in perhaps the different life stages that they are at: not all benefits are of interest to all employees,” explains Gerald Young, senior research associate at the MissionSquare Research Institute and a co-author of the report.

African American and Hispanic government employees ranked salary—both 20%—as the top factor, which attracted them to the public sector, while white employees were more likely to identify personal satisfaction as the top motivation, at 15%.

The survey, comparing the sentiment of younger public service employees by race and ethnicity, followed up on “projects that we’ve done looking at the overall state and local workforce,” adds Young.

More than one-fifth (21%) of African American workers employed in the public sector had some experience in government prior to working full-time, compared to less than 5% of white and Hispanic workers. More than 50% of Hispanic and white employees reported no prior part-time or temporary public sector roles, compared to 34% of African American employees.   

This data “indicates that perhaps one of the pipelines for bringing new employees onto staff full time is looking to those gig employment, internship, apprenticeship or other part-time roles, as a way of acquainting people with the sector and looking for ways … to bring them on full-time,” Young adds.

Prior MissionSquare human resources surveys of state and local employers have shown “many of the employers are taking an all-of-the-above attitude toward their recruitment processes, it’s not simply posting a job opening on their website: it’s trying every strategy that can get more people in the door, more people applying, or more people at the very least aware of the opportunities, perhaps even years before they might be applying,” Young says.  

The research also found racial and ethnic distinctions on retirement savings behavior and career development:

• Regarding savings, Hispanic and white employees were more likely to report that they could not afford to save more for retirement (both 61%) compared to African American employees (46%); and
• looking at a longer career horizon, whether or not they stay with their current employer, 52% of white employees have a desire to stay in the public sector until they retire, compared to 27% of African American employees.  

The research is based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,004 state and local government employees aged 35 and was conducted by Greenwald Research.