On Tuesday, Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office released an updated report showing that 1 out of every 6 jobs in the city of Los Angeles is still vacant.
The Department of Street Lighting leads all city departments in vacancies, with a vacancy rate of more than 32 percent.
While the Department of Street Services, the city agency responsible for fixing our sidewalks and cleaning our streets, has more than 400 open positions, according to the controller’s report.
The new data analysis follows a June report that found that the citywide vacancy rate was 17 percent at the time. That figure hasn’t changed as of September, according to Mejia’s office. But between June and September, more than 870 city jobs were filled.
The controller’s analysis found that the workforce shortage is putting more pressure on existing workers to carry heavier workloads to make up for staffing shortages, “leading to an increase in overtime costs, labor tension, stress and potential increases in worker compensations costs over the long run.”
City services also “inevitably suffer” due to workforce shortages, the city controller found, “raising risks of significant financial, legal and regulatory lapses.”
The controller’s office recommendations range from creating “a shorter-term task force” to partnering with community leaders “to more closely collaborate on creative approaches to problem-solving while the city works to rebuild our workforce.”
“The issues that frustrate Angelenos can’t be wished away,” the city controller said in a statement. “The aspirations for a safer, cleaner, greener and more equitably prosperous city can’t be supported by a chronically understaffed City workforce. There is much work to be done. It is vital that we work on ensuring there are enough committed public service workers to do it.”
You can check out the city controller report here.
