Boston Council Probes 1,000-Plus City Job Vacancies as Budget Season Opens

BOSTON — April 9, 2024 — Boston City Council examines more than 1,000 unfilled city positions as budget season begins. The Council's Committee on Labor, Workforce and Economic Development, chaired by District 6 Councilor Benjamin J. Weber, held its first hearing April 9 on Docket 0418, a hearing order sponsored by Councilor Brian Worrell to examine long-term vacancies across city departments. The city employs more than 18,000 workers and currently has more than 1,000 open positions — down significantly from when Chief People Officer Alex Lawrence took the role roughly two years ago, according to Lawrence's testimony. Chief Financial Officer Ashley Groffenberger described a budgeting practice in which the city offsets departmental salary budgets by an assumed "salary savings" figure to account for expected vacancies, using a Public Works example of budgeting for 49 of 57 authorized positions. Lawrence cited a targeted hiring day for 911 call takers that produced 11 hires and drove that unit's vacancy rate from 37 percent down to 16 percent. Worrell said the administration had not yet returned a requested spreadsheet detailing how long each of the city's vacant positions has been open and the salary attached to each.