Higher State Worker Change Noted
by MARSHA SHULER - Advocate (excerpt)

State government employee turnover hit 14.4 percent last fiscal year — up 1 percent from the prior year, with the biggest revolving door at the state’s war veterans homes, prisons and facilities for the developmentally disabled. State employee layoffs in the wake of budget cuts during the fiscal year that ended June 30 contributed to the jump, said Civil Service Director Shannon Templet.

Last fiscal year, 548 state employees lost jobs because of layoffs, according to the most recent Civil Service report. In the current budget year, 60 employees have been laid off. The numbers also reflect continuation of the chronic problem of retaining employees who work in low-paying, “direct care” jobs in nursing homes and hospitals, Templet said. Correctional officials also fall into that category, she said. “It happens in the private sector also. It is just the type of position,” Templet said. Most of the starting salaries for the jobs with the highest turnover rates are at or below $20,000. For instance, a corrections cadet’s starting pay is $19,635 and a practical nurse’s $21,965. A food service worker’s maximum pay tops out at $26,270.

The 2010 annual Civil Service report monitoring 56,489 employees’ activities shows that of the people leaving state jobs, 10.5 percent did so voluntarily. Others left state jobs for reasons such as firings and nondisciplinary removal tied to exhausting sick leave or too many unscheduled absences. In the prior fiscal year, overall turnover was 13.2 percent, of which 9.5 percent was voluntary.