Despite a semblance of normalcy on the horizon, the effects of the pandemic will have a significant impact on how local government agencies are run in the future, especially for human resources departments. Government HR leaders have been forced to meet challenges they never had before, in ways they may have never thought possible -- like enabling remote work, designing touchless work spaces, and migrating manual processes to the cloud.

EL SEGUNDO, Ca.; March 19, 2021 – As covered by The New York Times, new data reveals that qualified Black females are 58% less likely to be hired for a government job than their White male counterparts, according to new research from Governmentjobs.com, the leading public sector job board. Based on an analysis of over 17 million applications over a two year time period, the data identifies disparities throughout the hiring process by race, ethnicity, and gender. The goal of the report is to increase awareness of the inequities and spur change.

The COVID-19 pandemic sent shockwaves around the world in 2020, and one of the major effects was on employment, in both the private and public sector. Due to the business closures brought on by the enforced lockdown and the payroll freezes, many news sources including the Wall Street Journal describe the “economic downturn” of the COVID-19 pandemic as the worst recession since the Great Depression caused by the stock market crash of 1929. In fact, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.5% in March 2020 -- close to the record low --  to a record high of 14.7% just one month later (Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

EL SEGUNDO, CA - Working looks a little different this year, and so does our holiday video. Our team has been working remotely since March and came together virtually to spread holiday cheer by singing along to Winter Wonderland by Backtrack Vocals. Check out our holiday card, complete with the computer glitches and lagging that have been the markers of 2020. Happy Holidays from the NEOGOV family!

For those familiar with NEOGOV’s invigorating user conference at The Mirage in Las Vegas, this year’s user conference looked a little different. No less exciting, but safer in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic, NEOGOV’s 20th annual Connect user conference went virtual for the first time.

Attracting enough qualified applicants to public sector positions can be challenging. While many applicants are drawn by the prospect of doing meaningful work and supporting their communities, public sector roles are often overlooked by applicants in search of perks the private sector can offer.

In addition to health concerns, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an upheaval of the public sector job market that has left many workers uncertain about their future. With massive layoffs and a hiring freeze, the US unemployment rate increased to 14.4% in April, the highest since World War II. 

According to our survey of 23,310 job seekers between April and June of 2020, 51% reported their job status had changed as a result of the pandemic. The top three reasons that caused a job status change were involuntary, including being laid off (32%), reduced working hours (25%), and being furloughed (18%).

NEOGOV’s partnership with 40+ vendors provides our customers with access to a marketplace of solutions that integrate directly with the NEOGOV platform to allow for seamless sharing of data across systems. We have already facilitated over 1,000 integrations and continue to partner with vendors to offer more solutions to support the entire employee lifestyle.

The unexpected disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic caused many organizations to work remotely for the safety of their workforce. When we asked HR teams whether their teams moved to remote work at some point during the pandemic, 93% said they had. Despite a lack of preparedness, the majority we surveyed back in May found that with flexibility, resourcefulness, and a ton of support from their IT departments, they managed to adjust and persevere.

As American society faces a new reckoning around the subject of discrimination and harassment, government bodies are looking for ways to remedy these problems with legislation. One such topic being addressed by state and local laws in the wake of the #MeToo movement is sexual harassment training, with several states and one major city enacting policies that require employers to ensure their employees are getting this important education and training.