State workforce increases, but shortages remain

The number of state employees in Louisiana increased 5.4% from 2021 through 2024, but staffing shortages remain across most state agencies with an average vacancy rate of 14%, according to a recent review. 
Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack published a report Monday on state government staffing trends from fiscal years 2020-21 through 2023-24. The report featured staffing trends across all executive branch agencies and higher education. 
As of June 30, 2024, the total number of employees in executive branch agencies, including contract employees, was 37,465, up from 35,553 in 2021. The 2024 number exceeded the roughly 36,000 state employees before the coronavirus pandemic but remains slightly below where it was about a decade ago in 2013 at 37,665, according to the report.
Compared with other states, Louisiana is roughly in the middle of the pack when it comes to its total of full-time equivalent workers across all agencies per 10,000 residents. A full-time equivalent includes both classified and unclassified civil servants. Additionally, two part-time workers who each work 20 hours per week, are counted as one full-time equivalent. 
With roughly 75,215 full-time equivalents, Louisiana ranks 22nd nationally and fourth regionally out of 10 southeastern states, the report notes.
The staffing shortages at state agencies appear to be slowly but steadily improving since the mid-pandemic peak of 16.4% during the 2021-22 fiscal year. The average vacancy rate has improved each year since then and now sits at 14%.
States agencies with the highest average vacancy rates from 2021-24 are ones that have generally struggled with chronic staffing shortages. They include the Department of Children and Family Services and the Office of Juvenile Justice. 
With a 34% vacancy rate, DCFS has long struggled to recruit child welfare workers because of the stressful nature of the job and its low pay, according to a June report from Waguespack’s office that focused specifically on the agency’s staffing troubles.
The midpoint pay for state social services employees, which includes child welfare workers at DCFS and other agencies, remains about 2% below the private sector pay but is competitive when compared with what other states pay, according to a separate report from the State Civil Service Commission. Louisiana pays its social services workers a median salary of $57,307 compared with the $53,457 regional average, according to that report.
Although it had a high average vacancy rate over the previous four fiscal years, the Office of Juvenile Justice saw an improvement in its staffing rate during 2023-24 but not because it gained a bunch of new employees. The improvement is largely a result of the closure of one of its facilities, the temporary Bridge City Center for Youth at Louisiana State Penitentiary, according to the auditor’s report. This improved the Juvenile Justice staffing shortage from 27.7% in 2023 to 11.7% in 2024, the report noted.
In 2023, the agency entered into a $9.5 million private security contract to staff two of its youth prisons with a total of 52 employees. OJJ agreed to pay the company, Coleman Consulting Group, LLC, a $75 hourly wage for labor and cover the cost of lodging, food and travel, though the guards who work for the company can only receive  as much as $25 per hour, according to an article from The Lens. 
Additionally, in August 2024, the State Civil Service Commission increased pay for protective services employees, which includes police officers, prison guards and parole officers. The midpoint salary in the protective services is now $71,223, compared with $66,732 in the private sector, a marked increase from the previous year when it sat roughly 0.4% below the private sector median salary.
The third highest vacancy rate, at 20.6%, belonged to the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, though its shortage improved roughly 4 percentage points in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Louisiana VA Secretary Col. Charlton Meginley said the vacancies are primarily for nursing assistants in the state’s veteran homes. Those homes saw an influx of residents during the pandemic, but those have started to level off, reducing some of their staffing needs, he said.
Staffing shortages have been a consistent issue across all state agencies. Aside from the pay bumps for police and prison guards, more than 70% of all classified employees in Louisiana do not make as much as their peers in the private sector or in the public sector in other states, though this isn’t necessarily the sole reason for the vacancies, according to the Civil Service Commission.
“Regarding the causes of vacancies, these can vary and may include factors such as pay, working conditions and other agency-specific circumstances,” Civil Service Public Information Director Lindsay Ruiz de Chavez said.
The auditor’s report included a separate, brief analysis of staffing trends across Louisiana’s public colleges and universities. Higher education staffing is down 5.4% from 2021, though it saw about a 2% uptick from 2023-24 with a total of 28,727 employees. The shortages largely occurred among the state’s smaller universities, community colleges and satellite campuses. Among the exceptions to this was LSU, which lost 1,370 employees since 2021 — a 19.4% decrease. 
Other colleges gained employees, including the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, which has gained about 120 workers for a 6.7% uptick.