The state’s government jobs website lists over 630 openings, including for the warden of the Macomb County Correctional Facility and chief of the state’s Wildlife Division.
Policymakers say they’ve made changes like rolling back retirement taxes and pro-union reforms to make public jobs more appealing.
Jacob Brown works in the state Department of Natural Resources. He says he’s observed a slight improvement so far.
“We’ve got more hours for our seasonal staff, which is nice. Those seasonal staff fill in big holes that our fulltime staff can’t provide always. So, some of those things have helped immediately but we need a lot more help.”
Brown says staff retention is a big challenge in his department.
